Gunmen on motorcycles have killed dozens of people in dawn raids across three villages in north-western Nigeria.
Armed men shot dead or cut the throats of their victims, lit homes on fire and abducted an "undetermined" number of people in Niger state, according to local reports seen by the AFP news agency.
The attacks on Saturday morning occurred near the site of a suspected jihadist massacre earlier this month, in which more than 100 people were killed in a similar style of attack.
Armed criminal gangs, known as bandits, have carried out attacks and kidnappings in Nigeria for years, but reports in western and central regions have risen sharply recently.
Bandits swooped on the village of Tunga-Makeri early in the morning.
