Gunmen abducted six female students and two staff members early Thursday from a secondary school in Kaduna state in northern Nigeria, police said.
The school is located far from the area of operation of jihadist group Boko Haram, which grabbed headlines around the world in 2014 with the abduction of over 276 schoolgirls from the remote northeastern town of Chibok in Borno state.
"Armed men gained entry into the Engravers College, a boarding secondary school in a remote area near Kakau Daji village in Chikun (district) and took away two staff of the college and six female students to (an) unknown destination," regional police spokesman Yakubu Abubakar Sabo said in a statement.
The school is located in an area known for armed banditry and kidnappings for ransom.
The police said it had mobilised units to hunt for the abductees and arrest the assailants and was "doing everything possible to secure the release of all the victims unhurt".
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The bursar at the school confirmed the kidnapping to AFP.
"Unknown gunmen broke into the school around 12:10 am (2310 GMT) and took away six female students and two staff who live inside the school," Elvis Allah-Yaro said.
"The police commissioner visited the school this morning and ordered a thorough search to find the students and the two staff."
Abductions for ransom are common in Nigeria and there has been a surge in armed banditry along the road leading from the capital Abuja to the northern city of Kaduna.
The police called on school officials "to promptly report incidents or suspicious persons around schools to forestall future occurrence of ugly incidents".
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