At least 45 people were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants in a remote village of Nigeria's northeast Borno state earlier this week.
Sources from the military and the civilian joint taskforce said the attack happened at dawn on Tuesday.
Two witnesses and two vigilantes put the death toll at 68.
The militants started shooting into houses in the village of Njaba at about 5.30am local time, a military source in Maiduguri said today.
The village is close to the town of Damboa and about 100km south of state capital Maiduguri.
"The attack was not immediately known because the village is very remote and our men couldn't access the area," the source said.
"I participated in the counting of dead bodies. Sixty-eight people were killed," said Muminu Haruna, 42, who escaped after the attack.
Children were said to have been deliberately targeted for slaughter and most of Njaba was destroyed by fire.
