[Ammi]

Around 150 schoolchildren are missing after armed bandits stormed a boarding school in northwest Nigeria’s Kaduna state where students were sleeping.

Police said the gunmen raided the Bethel Baptist High School in southern Kaduna overnight between 11 pm on Sunday and 4 am on Monday.

The group overpowered the school’s security guards before making their way into the student’s hostels, where the men are thought to have abducted the kids.

Later, the children were believed to be taken to a forest by the kidnappers.

In a statement, police said gunmen “overpowered the school’s security guards and made their way into the students’ hostel where they abducted an unspecified number of students into the forest”.

Reverend John Hayab, a founder of the school, told Reuters about 25 students had managed to escape while the rest of the students remained missing.

His 17-year-old son was among the students who managed to flee.

An estimate of 180 students attended the school.

The boarding school children are in the middle of the season for sitting their exams, according to Rev. Hayab.

Kaduna state has been hit by a wave of kidnappings for ransom by armed groups.

On the same day as the school abductions, staff and a baby were also taken from the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Centre hospital.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/around-150...152748365.html