Nigerian authorities step up efforts to rescue kidnapped students

Nigerian authorities have stepped up efforts to rescue students abducted by armed men who raided a school in Katsina, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to Press TV, gunmen on motorcycles staged an attack on the Government Science School at Kankara in Nigeria's north-western Katsina State late on Friday.

The bandits engaged security forces in a fierce gun battle, forcing hundreds of students to flee and hide in surrounding bushes and forest.

Aminu Bello Masari, the Governor of Katsina State, said government forces had intensified their efforts to find and free any kidnapped students. 

Masari noted the number of hostages was still unclear.

"The school has a population of 839 and so far, we are yet to account for 333 students," Masari told a federal government delegation in his office on Sunday.

He said many of the boys had managed to escape from the bandits' captivity and flee.

"We are still counting because more are still coming out of the forest," Masari said.

"Up till this moment, no one can give a precise figure of the children abducted," he said, adding that students who escaped confirmed some of their peers had been taken.

"Soldiers are currently in the bushes fighting the bandits. We will do all we can to ensure all the abducted children are reclaimed," he said.

National police spokesman Frank Mbas said "additional operational and investigative assets to support the ongoing search and rescue operations" had been deployed to the region.

ME