The state government said that when the gunmen riding motorcycles were attacked, about 200 children were going to school.

Police and state officials said an armed group kidnapped dozens of students from an Islamic school in Niger State, Nigeria, in north-central Nigeria on Sunday.

The Niger state government said on Twitter that about 200 children were in school when the attack occurred on Sunday.

The kidnapping was released one day after 14 students from a university in northwestern Nigeria were imprisoned for 40 days.

A spokesman for the Niger State Police said in a statement that gunmen on motorcycles with guns attacked the town of Tegina, the seat of the Lafite local government, at about 3 pm (14:00 GMT) on Sunday.

He said the assailants “shooted unscrupulously and kidnapped an unidentified number of children at the Salihu Tanko Islamic School”. The governor’s spokesperson said that one person was shot and the second person was seriously injured in the attack.

In recent months, armed groups that have attacked schools and universities in northern Nigeria have been kidnapped for ransom and more than 700 students have been kidnapped since December.

The owner of the school, Abubakar Tegina, told Reuters in a telephone interview that he witnessed the attack.

“I personally saw 20 to 25 heavily armed motorcycles. They entered the school and left the school with about 150 or more students.” They live in Tegina, about 150 meters (about 500 feet) from the school. Said.

When asked for more details on the number of people taken, he said: “We can’t say exactly because most of them had not reported to the school at the time.”

Teguina said there are about 300 students between the ages of 7 and 15. He said that these students live at home and only attend classes on site.

A school official, who asked not to be named, told AFP that the attackers initially took more than 100 children “but later sent back home the children they thought were too small, that is, children between 4 and 12 years old.”

The state government said in a series of tweets that the attackers released 11 students who were “too young to walk”.

Most of the students kidnapped in recent months came from boarding schools.

The armed groups rob the village, steal cattle and Kidnappers demand ransom.

On April 20, gunmen known locally as “bandits” attacked Greenfield University in northwestern Nigeria, kidnapped about 20 students, and killed a staff member in the process.

A few days later, five students were executed, forcing family members and the government to pay ransom, and About 14 students were released on Saturday.

Local media said the families paid a total of 180 million naira ($440,000) in ransom for their release.

Criminal gangs maintain camps in the Lugu Forest between Zamfara, Kachina, Kaduna and Niger states.