Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) At least 26 students and a teacher have been rescued after armed men raided a private secondary school in Nigeria's northwestern Kaduna State early Monday and kidnapped scores of people, said police. Officials from the school in Kaduna's Chikun district told Agence France-Presse news agency that no fewer than 140 students were captured and taken to an unknown destination by the attackers. Kaduna police, however, have said that the definitive number of abducted students has yet to be ascertained. Regional police spokesman Mohammed Jalige told CNN Monday that the gunmen, locally referred to as "bandits," took an unspecified number of schoolchildren from Bethel Baptist Secondary School, Kujuma, at around 1:45 a.m. local time. Jalige said that 26 students and a female teacher have so far been rescued after "operatives gave the bandits a hot pursuit."

Source: CNN July 05, 2021 15:22 UTC