Gunmen kidnapped 227 pupils and teachers from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, officials said Friday, in the second brazen school abduction in a week.

All of the 215 students taken from St Mary's school in Niger state were girls, according to a spokesman for the Christian Association of Nigeria which added that 12 teachers were also abducted.

Amid mounting fears over security in Africa's most populous nation, authorities in the nearby states of Katsina and Plateau ordered all schools to close as a precautionary measure.

The Niger state government closed many schools. President Bola Tiubu cancelled international engagements, including attending the G20 summit in Johannesburg, to handle the crisis which came after gunmen on Monday stormed a secondary school in Kebbi state in northwes

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