KANO, Nigeria: Suspected Islamists have shot dead three poker players near a church in the latest attacks targeting Christians in northeast Nigeria, residents said Sunday.

The killings took place late Saturday in Biu town of the northeast Nigerian state of Borno. The area is one of several placed under emergency rule by a presidential decree last week.

Two gunmen on a motorcylce shot into a crowd of Christians playing cards at an abandoned hotel near a church on the outskirts of the town, killing three and wounding seven others

"The gunmen, believed to be members of Boko Haram, riding a motorcycle, opened fire on a group of Christian residents playing poker outside the abandoned Honeymoon Hotel near EYN church and killed three people," Ba'na Ubaidu, a resident, told AFP.

Biu is about 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Maiduguri, the homeground of Boko Haram and capital of Borno state.

Godwin Shamaki, a Christian resident, gave a similar account.

"They just fired into the group of about 15 people playing cards, and killed three people," Shamaki said, adding that seven people were wounded.

"The attackers fled into the bush and disappeared. They are by all indications members of Boko Haram," Shamaki said.

More than 80 people, mainly Christians, have died in a spate of attacks blamed on Boko Haram since Christmas Day in Nigeria.