An environmental department official says workers combing bushes have recovered the bodies of at least 143 civilians killed by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect.

Mr Abdulazeez Kolomi told the Associated Press that environmental workers also found some beheaded corpses among victims of a Tuesday night attack on a major highway and Benisheik village in Borno state.

The extremists disguised in military fatigues, attacked in 20 pickup trucks firing anti-aircraft guns that overwhelmed security operatives using automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

The attack by the Islamic terror group Boko Haram, claimed lives of several residents of Benisheik town and travellers along the busy Damaturu-Maiduguri highway, in what is seen as a reprisal attack, ten days after the residents of Benisheik town clashed with the suspected sect members.

According to witnesses, the dreaded sect members stormed the town between the hours of 6:00 and 7:00 in the evening and overpowered the security agents in the town before killing scores of residents and travellers in a shootout that lasted throughout the night.

Several travellers plying the busy Damaturu-Maiduguri highway as at that time could not proceed on their trips for hours, while the sect members killed scores of people during the attack.