**Religious clashes have spread to a new area of the central Nigerian city of Jos, where fighting on Sunday reportedly killed 20 people.**Rival gangs of Christian and Muslim youths have put up roadblocks and gunfire is reported from the city, a BBC reporter says.
Extra troops and police are been sent to the newly affected areas. More than 60 arrests have been made since Sunday.
The area has a history of ethnic and religious tension.
At least 200 people were killed in clashes between Muslim and Christian groups in 2008 and 1,000 died in outbursts of violence during 2001.
The Plateau State authorities have yet to confirm how many people have died in the latest clashes.
“Some are in the church, some in the mosque… they are scared”
**Red Cross official Awwal Madobi **
Houses, mosques and churches were set alight on Sunday and a 24-hour curfew was put in force.
Plateau State spokesman Dan Manjang said it was not yet known what had sparked the unrest.
He told the BBC’s Network Africa programme there were reports that it may have started after a football match - although he said that would surprising.
Reuters news agency quotes residents as saying the violence started after an argument over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the 2008 clashes.
Nigerian Red Cross official in Jos Awwal Madobi told the BBC that families had fled the violence.
“Some are in the church, some in the mosque and the NDLEA (Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency),” he said.
“It’s not that they are directly affected but they are scared and want to be somewhere secure for their safety.”
He said they needed blankets and food as they had fled empty-handed.
Correspondents say such clashes in Nigeria are often blamed on sectarianism, however poverty and access to resources such as land often lies at the root of the violence.