At least 30 people, including eight children, were killed when armed assailants attacked a village in Nigeria’s northwestern Kaduna state, residents said on Monday.
The gunmen entered Naridon village in Kauru Local Government Area shortly before midnight, opening fire on residents and setting homes ablaze.
Dogon Rana, secretary to the village head, said the attackers fired indiscriminately as they moved through the community. Four people were also injured in the assault.
“The victims are women, children and the elderly,” local youth leader Ishaya Dawa said, adding that some residents had been slaughtered and several bodies taken to a mortuary.
The attackers fled after burning a number of houses, while security forces did not arrive until Monday morning, several hours after the raid, according to Dawa.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Kaduna state lies within a region increasingly affected by armed gangs and criminal groups that frequently raid rural communities, killing residents, abducting civilians and looting property.
Nigeria is also battling a long-running Islamist insurgency in the northeast led by Boko Haram and its splinter faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province.
Kaduna State police spokesperson Mansur Hassan said authorities would release further details about the attack.