Police in Nigeria say six female secondary school students and two members of staff have been kidnapped in Kaduna State in the north of the country.

The kidnappings happened before dawn at the Engravers College - a boarding school near Kakau Daji village south of Kaduna city.

A statement says officers from the police anti-kidnapping unit, as well as regular police, are doing all they can to ensure the victims are released unhurt.

Whilst Islamist militants have kidnapped students before in other areas of northern Nigeria - dozens of whom are still missing - correspondents say this attack is more likely to have been carried out by a kidnapping gang in search of a ransom.