President Muhammadu Buhari said “only fiends from the nether region” could have done this “dastardly act”.

The armed men entered St Francis Catholic church in the town of Owo during a Sunday service. They fired into the congregation and then kidnapped a priest as well as some other church-goers, witnesses said.

Nigeria has experienced an upsurge in violence in recent months.

Kidnappings and attacks have been reported across the vast country.

No figures for the numbers killed or abducted in Sunday’s violence have been confirmed.

But a doctor at a local hospital, quoted by the Reuters news agency, said that “several worshippers were brought in dead”. After visiting the church and hospital, state lawmaker Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole told the Associated Press news agency that children were among the dead.

In a series of tweets, Ondo state Governor Rotimi Akeredolu called it a “vile and satanic attack” on innocent people . He appealed for calm urging people not to take the law into their own hands.