Armed gunmen descended on a village in northern Nigeria on Sunday

Armed gunmen descended on a village in northern Nigeria on Sunday, killing 23 people, most of them shot dead as they were leaving prayers

Kaduna-The attack happened in a remote village called Dogo Dawa in Kaduna state, commissioner Olufemi Adenaike told a news conference. He added that two of the robbers had also been killed.

An investigation had revealed it was a revenge attack by the armed gang because four of its members had been arrested by vigilantes in the village and taken to the police.

"Following the arrest, some unidentified armed gang in Kuyello village, mobilized in large numbers and stormed the village in the early hours of Sunday in a bid to rescue the four persons arrested," he said.

"The gang descended on innocent members of the village, killing a total of 23 persons."

Most of the victims were killed as they left the village mosque, although a number were also killed in their homes, he said. He added that two of the gang members had been killed by the vigilantes in revenge.

Kaduna has been the scene of deadly clashes between Nigerian Christians and Muslims, including a spate of attacks on churches in June that left 50 people dead. The Islamic militant group Boko Haram, which is fighting to replace Nigeria's government with a fundamentalist Islamic state, claimed responsibility for those killings.