AT least 27 people were killed on Monday in a massacre in the central Nigerian state of Nasarawa, State Governor Abdullahi Adamu told reporters on Wednesday. We lost a substantial number of people … There were 27 people confirmed dead and we had yesterday 47 on admission,” in a hospital in the state capital Lafia, he said. Adamu blamed the killing on youths of the minority Tiv ethnic group which has been the target of a series of ethnic killings by majority Hausa-speakers in the past two weeks. He said there had been “pandemonium” in Lafia when residents learned of the killing in a village in a remote corner of the state. Signs of the rioting which followed the news of the massacre were evident in the town on Wednesday and witnesses said that a revenge attack had taken place against Tivs. A series of ethnic killings erupted in Nasarawa in June 12, targetting the Tiv minority. The eruption followed the killing of a Hausa leader that day for which the Tiv were blamed. Dozens of people have been reported killed in the past two weeks but Adamu declined to give a precise figure. Officials in neighbouring Benue State say that more than 35,000 people have fled Nasarawa for its neighbour. – AFP