At least six Niger soldiers were killed on patrol when their vehicle hit a mine in the Diffa border region used by neighbouring Nigeria's Boko Haram militants, local authorities and media said on Monday.

“An army vehicle ran over a mine causing deaths and injuries but we do not have the exact figures,” Abari El Hadj Daouda, the mayor of the town of Kabalewa where the incident happened on Saturday, told AFP.

Private television Tenere and local radio station Anfani both reported that six soldiers were killed, with five to seven others wounded,

Images broadcast by Tenere showed the bodies of six soldiers draped in the national colours of orange, white and green laid out in a cemetery, with military personnel and civilians attending the burials.

According to the United Nations, there were at least 74 attacks last year by Boko Haram Islamists involving their fighters and Niger’s army in the border region of southeast Niger. (AFP)

•Photo courtesy of AFP/Issouf Sanogo shows Niger soldiers recently riding in a military vehicle in Malam Fatori, northern Nigeria.