DHAKA: Hundreds of people are feared dead in a suspected Boko Haram attack on four villages in northeast Nigeria, in the latest upsurge in violence claiming increasing numbers of civilian lives.

Some community leaders put the death toll from the attacks in the Gwoza district of Borno state as high as 400 to 500, although there was no independent verification because of poor communications in the remote area.

If confirmed, the attacks in the villages of Goshe, Attagara, Agapalwa and Aganjara would be among the deadliest in the Islamists' five-year insurgency and top the more than 300 who were killed on May 5 in nearby Gamboru Ngala.

‘The killings are massive but nobody can give a toll for now because nobody has been able to go to that place because the insurgents are still there. They have taken over the whole area,’ lawmaker Peter Biye said, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 0617 HRS, JUNE 06, 2014