A group of armed men kidnapped more than 220 pupils and staff from a Catholic boarding school in central Nigeria, local officials said on Friday, APA reports, citing DW.
Local police said the attack happened in the early hours of Friday morning, just days after a similar attack on a girls' school in another part of the country.
The Christian Association of Nigeria said that a total of 227 people had been abducted, including 215 pupils and 12 teachers.
"The Niger State government has received with deep sadness the disturbing news of the kidnapping of pupils from St. Mary's School in Agwara local government area," Abubakar Usman, the state government secretary, said in a statement.
The local Catholic diocese said "armed attackers invaded" the school between 1:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. [0000 to 0200 GMT], abducting "pupils, students, teachers and a security" guard who was shot.
"Some students escaped and parents have started coming [to] pick up their children as the school has to be shutdown," the Christian Association of Nigeria said in its statement.
The secretary to the Niger state government said the school had remained open despite intelligence warnings of a heightened threat.
"Regrettably, St. Mary's School proceeded to reopen and resume academic activities without notifying or seeking clearance from the State Government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk," a statement from the secretary read.
Niger State Police Command said St. Mary's was a secondary school for students aged 12 to 17.
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