The state police commissioner said the attackers were herders who had “shot sporadically” during the Monday night raid on the village of Isapa, which neighbours another village where 35 people were kidnapped just a week before.

“There is a manhunt for them. Policemen are in the bush with local hunters,” Commissioner Ojo Adekimi told AFP.

The raid comes one week after gunmen killed two people and kidnapped 35 worshippers in an attack on a church in the village of Eruku, which is around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Isapa.

Last week, armed gangs also seized more than 300 children from a Catholic school in Nigeria’s north central Niger state, and 25 schoolgirls from another school.

Nigeria is facing a long-running security crisis fuelled by jihadist attacks and violence by “bandit” gangs that raid villages, kill people and kidnap for ransom.

US President Donald Trump earlier this month threatened military action over what he described as the “mass slaughter” of Nigeria’s Christians — a claim the Nigerian government rejects.

fvl/jhb/giv