At least 11 people were killed and four others wounded when gunmen opened fire on villagers in Nigeria's central state of Plateau, the police said on Wednesday.

The villagers were returning from a local market in Riyom area of the state late Tuesday when the gunmen struck, said Terna Tyopev, a spokesman for the police.

No arrest has so far been made, but investigators are working to track the gunmen, Tyopev told Xinhua.

The attack was the latest in a series of violence in rural communities in Plateau, a state situated in Nigeria's middle belt where the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian-majority south meets.

The Nigerian state had suffered massive violence for more than a decade, but it enjoyed relative peace for two years before bloodshed resumed in September.

Last month, the police said it had launched an investigation into recent attacks which claimed many lives in the state.

source: Xinhua