The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has described the mass kidnapping of schoolchildren from a school in Kaduna in northwest Nigeria as “reprehensible’.

More than 250 students were kidnapped on Friday morning at GSS Kuriga in Chikun local government area of Kaduna.

It was the largest school kidnapping the country has seen in three years.

At least one person was shot dead during the attack. President Bola Tinubu said he was “confident”  Nigerian troops will rescue the children.

“Those responsible for these horrifying attacks must be held accountable,” Blinken said on X.

The Kaduna state attack was the second mass kidnapping in a week in Africa’s most populous country, where heavily armed criminal gangs on motorbikes target victims in villages and schools and along highways in the hunt for ransom payments.

“We condemn the recent kidnappings of displaced persons in Borno State and school children & staff in Kaduna State, Nigeria,” said Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security advisor, wrote on X.

“We stand with Nigeria in demanding the immediate safe return of these innocent civilians and call for perpetrators to be held to account.”

Sani Abdullahi, a teacher at the GSS Kuriga, said staff managed to escape with many students when the gunmen, referred to by locals as “bandits”, attacked early Thursday firing in the air.

He told local officials that 187 pupils had been snatched from the main junior school along with another 100 from primary classes. Three residents also said between 200 and 280 children and teachers had been snatched.

“Early in the morning… we heard gunshots from bandits. Before we knew it, they had gathered up the children,” resident Musa Mohammed told AFP.

“We are pleading to the government, all of us are pleading, they should please help us with security.”

The Kaduna abduction and the mass kidnapping a week ago from camps for people displaced by jihadists in northeast Borno state illustrate the challenge facing Tinubu, who promised to make Nigeria safer and bring in more foreign investment.

“I have received briefing from security chiefs on the two incidents, and I am confident that the victims will be rescued,” Tinubu said in a statement ordering armed forces to track down the kidnappers.

“Nothing else is acceptable to me and the waiting family members of these abducted citizens. Justice will be decisively administered.”

The two mass kidnappings came almost 10 years after Boko Haram militants triggered a huge international outcry in April 2014 by kidnapping more than 250 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno state.

Some of those girls are still missing.

More than 100 people were reported missing after last week’s mass kidnapping in Borno, but conflicting accounts have emerged about the time and number of victims.

AFP contributed to this report.