Abuja: More than 400 students are missing after an attack on a school in Nigeria.
A large group stormed a school in the northwestern Nigerian state of Katsina, according to a foreign news agency. The assailants had automatic weapons.
According to the local police chief, a shootout between the attackers and police allowed some students to flee the school. The total number of students in the school is said to be 600 out of which only 200 have been identified.
A government spokesman said police, the army and the Nigerian Air Force were in contact with school officials and information was being gathered about missing or abducted students.
Talking to news agencies, some locals said they had seen the attackers carrying some children with them.
A similar horrific incident took place in Nigeria in April 2014 when the militant group Boko Haram attacked a girls’ school in Chibok and abducted 246 female students. Of these, 100 girls are still missing.
The latest attack is thought to be the work of one of the most active criminal gangs in northwestern Nigeria. These groups are involved in large-scale kidnappings for ransom.