Gunmen abduct 40 in deadly Nigeria school raid

KANO, Nigeria－Gunmen have attacked a school in Nigeria's north-central Niger state, killing at least one student and abducting more than 40 people including students and teachers, according to an official, a teacher and a prefect.

The gunmen, thought to be bandits, shot dead one student during the incident early on Wednesday at the Government Science College in Kagara. Local reports said about 26 students and 16 staff and family members were abducted, while authorities were trying to get exact numbers.

The gunmen chased the students across the school and shot one of them in the head as he tried to escape, the school's head prefect, Awal Abdulrahman, said.

"They attacked the first two houses (hostels) by the wall.… They entered the house and chased students who tried to escape. … They followed us shooting and in the process shot one of us in the head," he said.

A teacher at the school, Aliyu Isah, said the gunmen entered the school premises at about 1:30 am dressed in military camouflage and forced him to lead them to the students' sleeping quarters where he and some students were tied up in pairs.

"They put me in front to lead them to the school hostel. … They told the students not to worry, that they were soldiers," he said, adding that some wore camouflage, army uniforms, and one wore a black coat.

"They gathered all the students outside but some ran into the bush," he said. "I was thinking I would not be able to escape but luckily enough, Allah gave me a way to escape from them and I assisted the students… I ran toward the football field and they started shooting."

In response to the attack, Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello closed the state's schools and called on President Muhammadu Buhari for assistance to improve security.

Buhari later condemned the abductions and ordered a rescue operation.

"The president has directed the Armed Forces and Police, to ensure immediate and safe return of all the captives," presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said in a statement.

Buhari urged Nigeria's security forces "to do all that can be done to bring an end to this saga, and avoid such cowardly attacks on schools in the future", the statement added.

Rescue mission underway

Authorities were trying to locate the gunmen and the abducted students, deploying military aircraft, a military source said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest abduction in Kagara, but Nigeria's extremist rebels, Boko Haram, are opposed to Western education and in the past have carried out mass abductions of schoolchildren as part of their violent campaign to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria.

Several highly organized armed groups, locally called bandits, often abduct students for money.

The incident came two months after gunmen abducted more than 300 schoolboys from a secondary school in Kankara, Katsina state. The students were later released.

The attack also came three days after gunmen attacked a bus belonging to the Niger State Transport Authority and abducted at least 21 passengers.

On Tuesday, a statement from the office of the Commissioner of Information in the state, Mohammed Idris, said 10 people had been freed from the kidnappers. Ransom was not paid to secure their release, he said.

Agencies - Xinhua