More than 200 people have died after renewed religious violence between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria, it emerged yesterday.

Yemi Kosoko, a reporter with the independent Nigerian news network Channels, said most of the bodies appeared to be women and children killed by blows from machetes.

Mr Kosoko said he counted the bodies yesterday with an official from the state government in a village just south of the city of Jos.

A Red Cross spokesman said the military has surrounded the villages affected by the violence and hundreds of people have fled.

More than 300 people died in religious violence in January around Jos. Sectarian violence in this region of Nigeria has left thousands dead over the past decade. Witnesses said the violence began in the mostly Christian village at about 3a.m. - an hour when the area should have been under curfew and guarded by the military. Jos has remained under a curfew since violence in January left more than 300 people dead - the majority of them Muslims.

Police and military officials declined to comment on the attack or the motivation for the violence.

In nearby Bauchi state, more than 600 people fled to a makeshift camp still holding victims of January's violence, said Red Cross official Adamu Abubakar.

"They started running away from the fighting," Mr Abubakar said.

Sectarian violence in this region of Nigeria has left thousands dead over the past decade. The latest outbreak came despite the Nigerian government's efforts to quell religious extremism in the West African country.