At least 27 people were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants in southeastern Niger, according to local officials.
Several others were wounded while some were reported missing in the attack on Toumour village in Diffa region on Saturday.
Property, including hundreds of houses, market and several vehicles, were also destroyed in a fire started by the assailants.
“Some victims were killed or wounded by bullets, others were burnt inside their houses, consumed by the flames of an enormous fire set by the attackers,” an unidentified official told AFP.
An estimated 70 militants laid siege to the village for about three hours having stormed the village after swimming across Lake Chad.
They then attacked the residence of the traditional chief, who only just managed to escape, the official added.
A local elected official who spoke on condition of anonymity said close to 60 percent of the village had been destroyed.
“It was an attack of unprecedented savagery,” he added.
Boko Haram has waged an insurgency for a decade in an attempt to create an Islamist caliphate in northeast Nigeria. It has carried out regular raids over poorly guarded borders into neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
At least 36,000 people have been killed in the conflict and millions of others have been displaced.
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