At least 35 people have been killed following attacks by gunmen on several villages in central Nigeria’s Plateau State, community leaders have said. The villagers said the gunmen were Fulani herdsmen. BBC reporter quoted villagers as placing the casualty at over 30 persons.

Many homes have also been torched in the violence which started Sunday and spread into Monday in the Bassa area, they add.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed in Bassa and more security forces have been deployed to restore order. But the curfew achieved little as the gunmen broke loose and continued the massacre.

Thousands of people were killed in years of ethnic and religious conflict in Plateau State but the region has enjoyed relative peace in the last two years.