Islamists kill 42 in school attack in Nigeria: medic

Gunmen believed to be Islamists from Nigeria's Boko Haram insurgent group killed 42 people, mostly students, in an overnight attack on a secondary school in restive Yobe state, a medical worker and residents said today.

"We received 42 dead bodies of students and other staff of Government Secondary School (in) Mamudo last night. Some of them had gunshot wounds while many of them had burns and ruptured tissues," Haliru Aliyu of the Potiskum General Hospital told AFP.

A local resident confirmed the death toll in the attack, the latest blamed on Boko Haram in Nigeria's volatile northeast.