Nigeria school attack: Gunmen who seized children in Katsina 'surrounded'

Gunmen who kidnapped scores of high school students in Nigeria's northwestern Katsina state have exchanged fire with military forces trying to rescue them, the country's president said Saturday. (NBC News)

Armed with AK-47s, the gang stormed the Government Science secondary school in Kankara district on Friday night, police and locals said. (NBC News)

A parent and school employee told Reuters that roughly half of the school's 800 students were missing. (NBC News)

Local police told CNN a large number of attackers riding motorbikes ambushed the boys' secondary school in a possible kidnapping-for-ransom attempt. (CNN)

Katsina police spokesperson Isa Gambo said in a statement that reinforcements arriving to the scene "forced the hoodlums to retreat back into the forest." (CNN)

Government troops have surrounded the area where gunmen are believed to be holding schoolchildren hostage in north-western Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari's spokesman has said. (Yahoo News)

Ten children are reportedly being held captive, Garba Shehu said, far fewer than the number staff reported missing. (Yahoo News)

About 800 pupils were enrolled at the all-boys school in Katsina state and about half remain unaccounted for. (Yahoo News)

Source: https://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-school-attack-gunmen-seized-182618998.html

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hundreds-high-school-students-kidnapped-nigeria-gang-firefight-military-n1251027

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/13/africa/nigeria-school-kidnapping-intl/index.html