At least 10 people including children were killed in an attack Sunday on a church in eastern Burkina Faso where places of worship have already suffered several Islamist assaults, security sources said.

The victims were attending a service at a Protestant church in the town of Hantoukoura, one of the sources told AFP, putting the death toll at "more than 10".

Around 10 "heavily armed individuals" carried out the attack in the village near the border with Niger, "executing the faithful including the pastor and children," the source said.

Another source said 14 worshippers were killed, all of them male.

Soldiers in the region were hunting down the assailants, who fled on scooters, the second source said.

The poor West African country has suffered a series of attacks on Christian targets since February, leaving 21 dead before Sunday’s attack.

Burkina Faso’s population is around two-thirds Muslim and one-third Christian.

Jihadist groups target Christian clerics as well as Muslim ones they do not consider sufficiently radical in a country where traditionally the two religions have co-existed peaceably.