Gunmen Abduct Students From School in North-Central Nigeria

BAUCHI/KADUNA, NIGERIA - An armed gang abducted students from an Islamic school in the north-central Nigerian state of Niger on Sunday, police and state government officials said.

Armed groups carrying out kidnapping for ransom are blamed for a series of raids on schools and universities in northern Nigeria in recent months, abducting more than 700 students for ransom since December. A spokesman for Niger's state police said in a statement that gunmen on motorcycles attacked the town of Tegina, in the Rafi local government area of the state, around 3 p.m. (1400 GMT) Sunday. He said the attackers were "shooting indiscriminately and abducted a yet to be ascertained number of children at Salihu Tanko Islamic school."