KANO: Nigerian police say they have found the bodies of 41 men with their throats cut in a northern area that is notorious as a hideout for criminal gangs, reports AFP.

Eighteen bodies were found in a river on Sunday while 23 others were discovered in a nearby forest in the Zurmi area of Zamfara state, police commissioner Kenneth Ebrimson said on Tuesday.

Police arrested four suspects after searching the bush area and also found machetes and guns, he told reporters in Gusau, the state capital. He said the suspects were identified as members of a widely-feared local vigilante group "who decided to carry out the extra-judicial killings".