Students abducted after gunmen attack school in Nigeria: Local police

Nigerian police on Sunday said a group of gunmen killed one resident and abducted some students following an attack in the country's north-central state of Niger.

Adamu Usman, police chief in Niger state, told Xinhua on phone, the school children were abducted after the unidentified gunmen attacked the Salihu Tanko Islamiya School in Tegina, a town in the Rafi local government area of the state.

A large number of the gunmen on motorcycles stormed the town on Sunday afternoon, shooting indiscriminately and killing one resident of the town in the process, said Usman.

He, however, declined to give the exact number of students kidnapped during the attack.

Local media reported over 200 students of the school were kidnapped by the gunmen.

The school is an unconventional one where parents send their children on a daily basis for the purpose of acquiring Islamic education, according to the local broadcaster Channels Television.

Niger police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun told Xinhua on phone, the security agency is yet to ascertain how many children were abducted from the school. An investigation has been launched to that effect.