Borno State government on Friday collected hundreds of bodies from the streets of Maiduguri on Friday following days of clashes with members of the Islamic sect, Boko Haramu.
Government and health ministry officials piled the corpses, some of them swollen after lying in the streets for days, onto open trucks as police and soldiers patrolled, according to Reuters news agency.
"As of yesterday, we had more than 200 dead bodies," Aliyu Maikano, northeastern zone disaster management officer for the Nigerian Red Cross, told Reuters, adding that bodies were still being collected.
The toll in Maiduguri brings to at least 600 the total number of people killed in violence that erupted in several states in northern Nigeria since Sunday.
The authorities are hoping the killing of sect leader, Mohammed Yusuf, whose Boko Haramu movement wants a wider adoption of Sharia (Islamic law) across the country, will bring an end to the six-day uprising by his followers.
Yusuf, 39, was shot dead while in police detention late on Thursday. Officials have said he died in a shoot-out while trying to escape.
Hundreds of people gathered on Friday to see Yusuf's corpse, laid on the ground in front of Maiduguri police headquarters alongside the bodies of other presumed Boko Haramu, members.
"I want to see the body of Mohammed Yusuf to know the man who has caused us so much pain and hardship. May his soul rot in hell," said one Maiduguri resident, Nasir Abba, in whose neighbourhood some of the heaviest fighting took place.
A Reuters reporter earlier counted 23 bloodied bodies with what appeared to be fresh bullet wounds, among them a former commissioner for religious affairs in the state believed to be a Boko Haram supporter, Alhaji Buji Fai.
"Alhaji Buji Fai was killed along with other fleeing Boko Haramu in an exchange of fire this morning along Benishek-Maiduguri road," said Isa Azare, spokesman for the police command in Maiduguri.
The Red Cross said 182 people were being treated at two hospitals in Maiduguri for gunshot wounds, machete blows, knife wounds and beatings.
"These are civilians ... we have not identified any Muslim sect members among these injured," he said, adding that army doctors and nurses were helping civilian medics.
He said around 3,500 displaced people were still sheltering in barracks but, encouraged by the killing of Yusuf and other leading sect members, many had started to return home.
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