At least 16 people have been killed in an attack on a predominantly Christian village in northern Nigeria.

Police said late on Friday that unidentified assailants had also burnt a number of houses in the village in Bauchi state, near Tafawa Balewa.

Bauchi is in Nigeria's middle belt, where the predominantly Muslim north meets the mainly Christian south.

There are long-standing tensions in the area rooted in power struggles and land disputes, correspondents say.

This has caused violence in the past between indigenous Christian or animist groups, and Muslim settlers from the North.

Hundreds have died in clashes in Nigeria following national elections last month in which Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, won the presidential poll against a Muslim, Muhammadu Buhari.

The worst of the violence was in Bauchi and Kaduna states.