At least 12 people have been killed in an attack by members of the militant group Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.

Police and residents said on Saturday that the militants also burnt a number of homes and stole cars in the attack that occurred in the Sandiya village on Thursday in Borno state, Boko Haram's stronghold.

"Hoodlums invaded the community and killed 12 people," Borno's police commissioner Lawal Tanko said in a statement.

He added that they set alight dozens of houses and stole several vehicles in the village located about 85 kilometers from the state capital Maiduguri.

"The gunmen were on a revenge mission," said Sandiya resident Sabitu Ali, who identified the assailants as "Boko Haram" fighters.

"They are accusing us of collaborating with security men in tracking them," he added.

Nigerian authorities have cut off telephone lines in Borno state in an attempt to disrupt Boko Haram's attacks. Therefore, it often takes days for news of violence to reach Maiduguri where reporters are based.

Violence has intensified in northeastern Nigeria since President Goodluck Jonathan ordered his security forces in May to crush Boko Haram's four-year-old rebellion.

The Nigerian forces have been raiding militant camps and launching air and ground attacks on suspected hideouts of the militants over the past two months.

The military's newly formed anti-insurgency division has been taking part in the operations.

Boko Haram says its aim is to topple the Nigerian government, which it accuses of being pro-Western.

The group has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly gun and bomb attacks in various parts of Nigeria since 2009.

Over the past four years, violence in the north of Africa’s most populous country has claimed the lives of 3,600 people, including killings by security forces.

In May 2013, the Nigerian government imposed a state of emergency in three states in the northeast, saying Boko Haram had become a security threat in those states.