Gangs of rioters armed with machetes and shotguns poured through the streets of the mainly Christian southern city of Onitsha today as the death toll from days of Christian-Muslim violence across Nigeria rose to at least 76.

Thousands of Nigerian Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and burned churches in north-eastern Nigeria, killing at least 15 people, police and residents said.

Nigerian police and soldiers freed two kidnapped expatriate oil workers, one of whom is thought to be Irish, during a rescue operation in the country’s southern oil-rich delta today, a police spokesman said.

13-year-old Nigerian ‘‘witch’’, who was charged today with killing a two-year-old boy, has admitted taking part in the ritual murders of 47 others.