MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Sporadic gunfire rang out in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri overnight despite a curfew imposed after days of clashes involving Muslim rebels which have killed at least 80 people across four states.

The government said 55 people were killed; one media report said as many as 300 had died. A Nigerian newspaper with reporters around the region put the death toll at over 150 in Borno and Kano states alone.

Nigerian authorities poured security forces onto the streets of several northern towns yesterday after the wave of Islamic militant attacks against police killed dozens of people.