Suspected Muslim herdsmen in Nigeria have hacked and shot to death seven sleeping family members at a Christian village in the volatile central Plateau state, officials said.

"A family of seven was brutally killed at Riya, a village in Riyom Iga," government spokeswoman Pam Ayuba told AFP.

He said suspected ethnic Fulani herdsmen, who are predominantly Muslim, invaded the mainly Christian and farming village Wednesday night and shot and macheted the victims in their bedrooms before fleeing.

"It was the usual style of attack, they were killed in their sleep by Fulani herdsmen," he added. "I am still expecting the details of the names, ages and sex of the victims."

Riyom is near Jos, the flashpoint capital of the Plateau state where thousands have died in communal and sectarian clashes in recent years.

At least two people were killed and several others injured two weeks ago when suspected Fulani herdsmen attacked the area.

Jos lies in the so-called middle belt region dividing the mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south of Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer.