Gunmen Shoot Dead Four Family Members in Nigeria

Gunmen on Tuesday attacked a village in central Nigeria, killing four members of a family, an army spokesman and a community leader said.

"Four members of a family were killed in Rantis village of Gashes District in Barkin Ladi local government area" of Plateau state, army Captain Salisu Ibrahim Mustapha, of the Joint Task Force, told reporters.

A community leader, Pam Davou, said "the four dead members of the family were the father, his wife and two of their children and they were gunned down around 4:00am (0300 GMT)".

The gunmen invaded the village at dawn and shot sporadically, killing the four as they slept in their house.

Mustapha said no arrests had been made but added that efforts were underway to track down the perpetrators.

The deaths come after armed gunmen, suspected to be cattle rustlers, killed 10 members of one family last month in the same area of the state. Security forces shot dead six of the attackers, according to the police.

Hundreds of people have been killed in recent years following communal or ethnic-religious violence in Plateau state, which lies between the Christian-dominated south and mainly-Muslim north of Nigeria.