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The state government stated that there were about 200 children in the school when gunmen on motorcycles attacked.
Police and state officials said that on Sunday, an armed group kidnapped dozens of students from an Islamic school in Niger State in north-central Nigeria.
The Niger State government said on Twitter that about 200 children were in school when the attack occurred on Sunday, adding that “an unconfirmed number” had been taken away.
The kidnapping took place the day after 14 students from a university in northwestern Nigeria were released. They were imprisoned for 40 days.
A spokesman for the Niger State Police said in a statement that at about 3 pm (14:00 GMT) on Sunday, gunmen on motorcycles attacked the town of Teguina in the Lafite local government area of the state.
He said that the attackers “fired indiscriminately and kidnapped an undetermined number of children at the Salihu Tanko Islamic School”. The governor’s spokesperson said that the attack resulted in one death and another severely injured.
In recent months, schools and universities in northern Nigeria have been subjected to a series of attacks, and armed groups kidnapping for ransom have kidnapped more than 700 students for ransom since December.
The school’s boss, Abubakar Teguina, told Reuters in a telephone interview that he had witnessed the attack.
“I personally saw 20 to 25 heavily armed motorcycles. They entered the school and then left with about 150 or more students,” lives in Teji, about 150 meters (about 500 feet) from the school. Na said.
“We can’t be accurate because most of them had not reported to the school at the time,” he said when asked for further details on the number of people taken.
Tegina said there are about 300 students between the ages of 7 and 15. He said that the students live at home and only attend classes on site.
A school official, who asked not to be named, told AFP that the attackers initially took more than 100 children, “but later sent back the children they thought were too small for them. Those between 4 and 12 years old “.
The state government stated in a series of tweets that the attackers had released 11 students who were “too young to walk” far away.
Most of the students kidnapped in recent months were taken from boarding schools.
The armed groups rob villages, steal cattle and intimidate people in northwest and central Nigeria. Kidnapper asks for ransom.
On April 20, gunmen called “bandits” by locals attacked Greenfield University in northwestern Nigeria, kidnapping about 20 students and killing a staff member in the process.
A few days later, five students were executed to force their families and the government to pay ransoms, and About 14 students were released on Saturday.
Local media said the families paid a total of 180 million naira (US$440,000) in ransom for their release.
Criminal groups set up camps in the Lugu forest spanning Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states.
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