ABUJA - Nigeria's government forces on Tuesday foiled a suicide attack in the country's Maiduguri city, the capital of the northern Borno State, local police said.

Two female suspects were about to wreak havoc in the city early in the day when security agents arrested one and shot dead the other, said Victor Isuku, Borno State police spokesman.

He said the suspects were sighted behind a petrol filling station on the outskirts of Maiduguri, trying to detonate their explosive device when agents of the police anti-bomb unit ensuring safety in the area arrested them.

One of them was shot dead as she attempted to escape, he added.

Terror group Boko Haram is suspected of regrouping in Maiduguri after the military dislodged them from Sambisa Forest, their last enclave in the country, last December.

The Nigerian military is currently intensifying aerial and ground patrol in the country's northeast, extending its offensive mission around the Green Belt Region near Niger and Chad.