Police in Nigeria say six female secondary school students and two members of staff have been kidnapped in Kaduna State in the north of the country.
The kidnappings happened before dawn at the Engravers College – a boarding school near Kakau Daji village south of Kaduna city.
The school is located in an area known for armed banditry and kidnappings for ransom.
The police said it had mobilized units to hunt for the abductees and arrest the assailants and was “doing everything possible to secure the release of all the victims unhurt”.
A statement says officers from the police anti-kidnapping unit, as well as regular police, are doing all they can to ensure the victims are released unhurt.
Whilst Islamist militants have kidnapped students before in other areas of northern Nigeria – dozens of whom are still missing – correspondents say this attack is more likely to have been carried out by a kidnapping gang in search of a ransom.
The police called on school officials “to promptly report incidents or suspicious persons around schools to forestall future occurrence of ugly incidents”.
