The country’s president said Saturday that gunmen who kidnapped a number of high school students in Nigeria’s northwestern Katsina state have exchanged fire with military forces trying to rescue them. The mob, armed with AK-47s, attacked a government science high school in Kangra district on Friday night, police and locals said. A parent and school employee told Reuters that half of the school’s 800 students were missing. In a statement condemning the attack in his home state, President Mohammed Buhari said the army had found the hijackers in a jungle and was exchanging fire with them with the help of air aid. Police and the military are still working to determine how many people have been abducted and are still missing. Police at the scene on Friday exchanged fire with the attackers, allowing some students to flee for safety, and a police spokesman said they would deploy additional forces to support the combo search and rescue. An officer was shot dead in a fire exchange with the mob, they said. Download NBC News App for News and Politics The party has been plagued by violent violence against bandits – for a loose word redemption money for illegal gangs attacking and abducting locals. Attacks by Islamist militants are common in the northeastern part of the country. Violence and insecurity have angered citizens across Nigeria, especially after a large number of farmers were killed, some beheaded and killed by Islamist militants in the northeastern state of Borno late last month. Buhari, who arrived on Friday, was scheduled to brief the National Assembly last week on the security situation in his home village, 125 miles from Kangara, but canceled the appearance without an official explanation.
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