Nigeria primary school children and teachers abducted in Kaduna State

An unknown number of school children and teachers have been kidnapped by gunmen from a primary school in Nigeria in a fresh attack in the north of the country, local authorities said in a statement on Monday.

It is not yet been specified how many were abducted from the school in Kaduna state.

It is the sixth attack or attempted school attack in less than three months in northwest and central Nigeria, where criminal groups, called "bandits", attack villages, rob cattle and kidnap for ransom.

Authorities in Kaduna said in a statement there was a "kidnapping of students and teachers in a primary school located in the town of Rema, in the district of Birnin Gwari".

The authorities "are in the process of collecting details on the number of students and teachers abducted" and will communicate them shortly, the local Minister of Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said in the statement.

The new attack comes a day after Nigerian security forces thwarted an attempt to kidnap hundreds of schoolchildren in the same state of Kaduna.

Last Thursday, armed men also stormed a school in Kaduna on the outskirts of Mando.

The army managed to rescue nearly 180 students but 39 are still being held hostage. A military operation is still underway to rescue them, according to the local authorities.

Several states in northern and central Nigeria have closed their schools for security reasons, raising fears of worsening dropouts, particularly among girls, in these poor and rural regions which already have the highest rate in Nigeria of children not attending school.