Youths from the mostly Christian Berom ethnic group set up the roadblocks on January 30 at Gada Biu, on the edge of the city of Jos, stopping vehicles and pulling out people they believed to be Muslims, witnesses said.

The latest burst of violence in Plateau state, where an estimated 200 people have been killed in ethnic and religious clashes over the past month, was triggered when Muslim youths attended a burial ceremony near a Christian village on January 29.

Soldiers opened fire to try to quell fighting that ensued between rival mobs of students.

"The situation was aggravated when the soldiers attempted to repel them into the campus. In the process, many students sustained various degrees of injuries," Plateau State Information Commissioner Gregory Yenlong said.

There have been almost daily clashes between Christian and Muslim mobs in villages around Jos, the capital of Plateau state, since a series of bombs were detonated during Christmas Eve celebrations a month ago, killing scores of people.

The tension in central Nigeria's "Middle Belt" is rooted in decades of resentment between indigenous groups, mostly Christian or animist, who are vying for control of fertile farmlands and for economic and political power with migrants and settlers from the Muslim north.