The death toll in a twin attack on the central Nigerian city of Jos has risen to 51, the country's National Emergency Management Agency said on Wednesday.

"As at yesterday (Tuesday), it was 51," said NEMA coordinator for Jos, Mohammed Abdulsalam.

Sani Mudi, a Muslim leader in Jos, perhaps Nigeria's most religiously segregated city, stares out the window of the dimly lit central mosque, waiting for young men to drift in.

Some come to worship, he said, but often visitors have a more mundane purpose: help in getting valid identification, proof of residence papers or any other services that should be provided by the Christian-controlled state government.

Gunmen shot dead three Christians near the flashpoint central city of Jos, hours after 10 people were killed in a suicide bombing of a Catholic church, the Plateau state government said Monday.

The gunmen struck late Sunday in a village south of the city, where Christian-Muslim tensions were running high after the church attack, government spokesman Pam Ayuba told Agence France Presse.

A car laden with explosives detonated outside of a Catholic church Sunday in a restive city in central Nigeria, killing at least three people and injuring others, a rescue official said.

The blast happened Sunday morning outside of St. Sinba's Catholic Church in the city of Jos.

The death toll from a clash between Christians and Muslims in deeply divided central Nigeria has risen to at least 13, a hospital official said on Tuesday.

"Thirteen corpses have been transferred (from another hospital closer to the violence)," Ishaya Pam, chief medical director at Jos University Teaching Hospital, said after Monday's clash.