Abuja:Eleven students who were abducted following an attack on a school in Nigeria's Niger state have been released, a government official said.
Mary Noel-Berje, a spokeswoman for the state government, said on Monday that authorities are yet to confirm the exact number of students who had been abducted on Sunday after unidentified gunmen attacked the Salihu Tanko Islamiya School in Tegina, a news agency reported.
"The released children were regarded as too small and could not walk a long distance, and this prompted the kidnappers to release them," Noel-Berje said.
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The state government is "still searching and conducting a house-to-house headcount to ascertain the exact number of children abducted at Tegina", she added.
Adamu Usman, the state's police chief, told a news agency that several gunmen on motorcycles stormed the town on Sunday afternoon, shooting indiscriminately and killing one resident in the process.