Two bomb blasts rocked Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna, killing more than 70 persons, security sources and eyewitness said on Wednesday.

Officially, the state police commissioner, Shehu Umar put the death toll to 39.

In the first blast, 25 persons were killed while the second one, according him, claimed more than 14 persons.

The police chief told Xinhua that one man dressed like a woman was arrested at the scene.

A competent security source said most of the people that died in the first blast were adherents of the Darika Islamic sect led by Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, a renowned Islamic cleric.

The first explosion was at the Alkali Kaita Road in the high brow area of the state while the second one occurred near the Kawo bridge, close to an army base.

A former Nigeria's head of state and chieftain of a main opposition party, the All Progressive Congress, Maj-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, was said to have narrowly escaped the second blast.

A Xinhua reporter in the state said most of the corpses were conveyed to the Nigerian Army Reference Hospital in the metropolis and other hospital in the state.

The state government has declared a 24-hour curfew in the city, to forestall any breakdown of law and order.

The government described the blasts as acts of cowardice and pledged that the government would uncover the perpetrators.