Armed bandits have invaded a girls’ school in Zamfara, abducting at least three hundred students.

The BBC reported on Friday morning that the mass abduction occurred overnight, saying parents of some of the students have confirmed the development.

The BBC reported the school as Government Girls’ Secondary School in Jangebe.

The abduction came barely a few weeks after hundreds of schoolboys were abducted in Katsina by bandits, drawing nationwide uproar.

Nine days ago, bandits breached a high school in Niger State and seized about 29 students and school administrators. National security sources informed Peoples Gazette that the federal government paid $2.099 million (N800 million) as ransom, but the students and their teachers were not released after Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello caught wind of the arrangement and instigated a cordoning of the vast forest where the students and their abductors have been held up.

A spokesman for the police in Zamfara did not immediately return a request seeking comments from the Gazette about today’s abduction of schoolgirls.

Zamfara security and internal affairs commissioner Abubakar Dauran confirmed the incident, saying efforts to rescue the students had commenced.

“At this moment, l cannot say how many students were taken away by the gunmen until l get there, but we have already mobilized security men and members of the vigilantatè who are now in pursuit of the abductors,” Mr. Dauran said as reported by News Agency of Nigeria.