A deputy governor in Nigeria says 18 people were killed in an attack on a local market there.

Borno state deputy Gov. Zanna Mustapha said Tuesday he received the information from a local village chief in the village of Damboa. Mustapha said local chief Abba Ahmed said the attack happened late Monday.

Residents and the deputy governor said the violence started after the local market banned a group of hunters from selling "bush meat" from slaughtered monkeys and other creatures. Local Muslims decline to eat it because of their religious convictions.

Security officials on Monday had said no one was killed in the attack. Damboa, in a rural part of the state, is difficult to reach.

The region is under attack by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.