A signboard for St. Mary's Private Catholic School stands at the entrance of the school in Papiri, Niger state Ifeanyi Immanuel Bakwenye/AFP/Getty Images

Fifty students who were abducted from a Catholic school in northern Nigeria on Friday have returned to their families after they managed to escape, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said on Sunday.

Armed bandits kidnapped 303 children and 12 teachers from the St. Mary’s Private Catholic school in the country’s north-central Niger State on Friday, according to CAN. The students are both male and female, some as young as ten.

“The pupils escaped between Friday and Saturday and have reunited with their parents as they could not return to the school after they escaped,” spokesman for CAN’s Niger State chapter chairman Most. Rev.

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