Three people were killed and 19 injured after an explosion at a crowded market in Nigeria's eastern state of Taraba, local police said on Wednesday.

Usman Abdullahi, police spokesperson for Taraba, said the blast in the rural Iware community occurred on Tuesday at a drinking spot in a section of a busy market, leaving three dead and more than a dozen people with injuries.

"It is suspected to have been caused by improvised explosive device that detonated. Investigations are ongoing," Abdullahi told Reuters via a phone message.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Nigeria is plagued by insecurity as armed gangs carry out attacks against communities and security targets in northern parts of the country. A bomb blast in 2015 hit a busy meat market in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri, killing as many as 50 people. And in 2016, at least two people were killed in an explosion outside government offices in Maiduguri.

Boko Haram terrorist group also causes chaos in the country with frequent kidnappings and attacks.

Boko Haram launched a bloody insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2009 before expanding its attacks to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a military response. Scores of civilians are still trapped in remote communities and are unable to flee due to a lack of security on roads.

Over 3.4 million people have been displaced, including over 2.7 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in northeastern Nigeria, over 684,000 IDPs in Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and 294,000 refugees from the four countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).