On Sunday night, gunmen opened fire on a boarding school in Kaduna, Nigeria’s northern state.
A member of the school reported that 140 pupils were kidnapped, likely to be exchanged for ransom.
“Attackers took 140 students with them, 25 managed to escape,” details Emmanuel Paul, who teaches at the Bethel Secondary School boarding school.
Close to 165 students were sleeping in the boarding school at the time of the attack.
“The gunmen climbed over the fence to enter the school,” he reported, stressing that “everything indicates that they arrived on foot.
Kaduna has seen three big attacks three consecutive times.
According to police, at least eight personnel of a Kaduna State hospital were taken on Sunday, however local sources claim that 15 individuals were seized, including two nurses and their infant.
Seven people were also killed in a nearby locality, Commissioner For Internal Security and Home Affairs Kaduna State, Samuel Aruwan said.
Since December, local criminal gangs known as bandits have been increasingly targeting schools and universities for kidnapping attacks in the hopes of extracting ransom payments from authorities.