Gunmen abduct 73 in Nigeria school attack

LAGOS, Nigeria－Nigerian police said on Wednesday that 73 students were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen from their school in the country's northwestern state of Zamfara.

Attackers descended upon the Government Day Secondary School in the remote village of Kaya around noon on Wednesday, said local resident Yusuf Mohammed to The Associated Press. The kidnappers then began shooting into the air before taking the students.

Mohammed Shehu, the spokesman for the police in Zamfara, said in a statement that a large group of gunmen on Wednesday morning abducted 73 students from a secondary school in the Maradun local government area of the state.

The police deployed a search and rescue team that was mandated to work in synergy with the military to ensure the safe rescue of the abducted students, said Shehu, adding that security has also been beefed up in Kaya and the surrounding areas to prevent further attacks.

Ayuba Elkana, the police commissioner in Zamfara, told reporters on Wednesday at a news conference in the state capital Gusau that the state government has ordered the immediate closure of all primary and secondary schools in the state following the latest abduction.

The state government also imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on 13 local government areas of the state as part of measures to tackle the growing banditry and kidnapping in the state.

There have been a series of gunmen attacks in Nigeria in recent months, leading to deaths and kidnapping.

More than 1,000 students have been kidnapped from schools in northern Nigeria since December. Though most of the pupils were ultimately released, some died or were killed in captivity and about 200 remain hostages before Wednesday's attack, according to UNICEF.

The new kidnappings came just days after three other groups of hostages were freed when large ransom payments were reportedly made, raising hopes that other captives might soon be freed too.

Authorities so far have blamed this year's spate of kidnappings on bandits, or criminals operating out of remote, forested areas in northern Nigeria.

Some fear the gunmen in the northwest are linked in some way to the militants long active in the region, who drew international condemnation in 2014 when they abducted 276 schoolgirls in 2014.

Agencies - Xinhua