This Sunday's image shows the wreckage of the car where six French aid workers, their local guide and the driver were killed by unidentified gunmen in Niger. Photo: AFP

Gunmen on motorcycles killed eight people including a group of French aid workers as they visited a part of Niger popular with tourists for its wildlife, officials said. 

"There are eight dead: two Nigeriens including a guide and a driver, while the other six are French," the governor of the Tillaberi region told AFP on Sunday.

France confirmed its nationals were among the dead, without giving a figure.

French aid group ACTED said several of its workers were among those killed during a tourist outing.

"Among the eight people killed in Niger, several were ACTED employees," said the NGO's lawyer Joseph Breham.

It is believed to be the first such attack on Westerners in the area, a popular tourist attraction in the former French colony thanks to its unique population of West African or Niger giraffes.

AFP