(BBC News) More than 280 Nigerian school pupils have been abducted in the north-western town of Kuriga, officials say.
The pupils were in the assembly ground around 08:30 (07:30 GMT) when dozens of gunmen on motorcycles rode through the school, one witness said.
The students, between the ages of eight and 15, were taken away, along with a teacher, they added.
Kidnap gangs, known as bandits, have seized hundreds of people in recent years, especially the northwest.
However, there had been a reduction in the mass abduction of children over the past year until this week.
The incident was confirmed by Uba Sani, the governor of Kaduna state, which includes Kuriga.
He said 187 students had gone missing from the Government Secondary School and 125 from the local primary school but that 25 had since returned.
Eyewitness said that one pupil was shot and was receiving medical attention at the Birnin Gwari hospital.
A teacher who managed to escape said local people had tried to rescue the children, but they were repelled by the gunmen and one person was killed.
Almost every family is thought to have a child among the kidnapped victims. The armed forces have launched an operation to find them.
In January, bandits killed a school principal in the area and abducted his wife.
The kidnapping comes days after dozens of women and children were feared kidnapped by the Boko Haram Islamist group while they were collecting firewood in northeastern Nigeria.
The two cases of mass abductions are not thought to be related.
The criminal kidnap gangs that bring fear to northwestern Nigeria are separate to the militant Islamist group Boko Haram in the northeast, although there have been reports that they may have worked together on occasion.
