No group has yet claimed responsibility for this or a previous abduction, as authorities deploy tactical squads alongside local hunters to rescue the children.

A total of 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers have been abducted by gunmen during Friday’s attack on St Mary’s Catholic School in north-central Nigeria’s Niger State, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has said, as security fears accelerate in Africa’s most populous nation.

The update from an earlier tally of 215 schoolchildren was announced on Saturday and was changed “after a verification exercise and a final census was carried out”, according to a statement issued by the Most Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, chairman of the Niger State chapter of CAN, who visited the school on Friday.

The attack comes just days after armed men stormed a secondary school in northwestern Nigeria, abducting 25 schoolgirls in similar circumstances in neighbouring Kebbi State’s Maga town, which is 170km (106 miles) away, early on Monday morning. One girl later escaped, and 24 are still missing.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the two abductions, and authorities have said tactical squads have been deployed alongside local hunters to rescue the children.

St Mary’s is classified as a secondary school, but satellite images show the compound linked to an adjacent primary school with more than 50 buildings, including classrooms and dormitories. The complex lies in Papiri town, close to a major road connecting the towns of Yelwa and Mokwa.

Residents described scenes of panic as families searched for their missing children.

Dauda Chekula, 62, said four of his grandchildren, aged seven to 10, were taken.

“We don’t know what is happening now, because we have not heard anything since this morning,” he told The Associated Press news agency. “The children who were able to escape have scattered … and the only information we are getting is that the attackers are still moving with the remaining children into the bush.”

A statement from the secretary to the Niger State government on Friday said that authorities had earlier received intelligence warning of increased threats in the area. It said the school reopened “without notifying or seeking clearance from the State Government, thereby exposing pupils and the staff to avoidable risk”.

President Bola Tinubu cancelled his planned trip to the G20 summit in South Africa following the abductions. Vice President Kashim Shettima will attend in his place, the presidency said on X.

The school kidnappings and an attack on a church earlier this week come weeks after United States President Donald Trump threatened military action over what he described as targeted killings of Nigeria’s Christians, a narrative rejected by the Nigerian government, which says Muslims are the majority victims of attacks by armed groups.

Trump’s assertions echo claims that have gained traction among right-wing and Christian evangelical circles in recent months.