Three people have been confirmed dead and 16 others injured after two suicide bombers attacked a hospital in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State in Nigeria’s troubled North-East.

The suicide bombers, both women, tried to get into a hospital but were stopped by security guards at the gate and blew themselves up, Reuters quoted witnesses as saying.

“We evacuated the charred bodies of the two security guards, another civilian and the two bombers,” said Auwal Mohammed, a member of the community in Molai, where the hospital is situated.

A source at the mortuary of Borno State Hospital in Maiduguri told Reuters that it had received three corpses after the blast. Another hospital source said 16 people injured in the attack had been brought in.

President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered the military hierarchy to move the military command centre to the troubled north-eastern town in order to curb the Boko Haram menace after his inauguration last month.

However, more than 100 people have reportedly been killed in northeast Nigeria in the past few weeks in a spate of bombings, mostly in Maiduguri.