According to officials, gunmen kidnapped at least 140 pupils in Nigeria’s northwestern region.
At least eight persons were kidnapped early Sunday morning from the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Centre in Zaria.
According to a hospital worker, two nurses and a 12-month-old toddler were among those apprehended.
There has been a recent rash of kidnappings for ransom from schools and institutions.
Another mass kidnapping was reported on Monday from a school in Kaduna city, roughly 80 kilometers (50 miles) south-west of Zaria.
In a statement, police said gunmen “overpowered the school’s security guards and made their way into the students’ hostel where they abducted an unspecified number of students into the forest”.
A total of 26 people – including a female teacher – had been rescued, the statement said.
A local Christian leader said there were 180 students in the school, only 20 of whom had been accounted for so far. However, he said some of them may have escaped.
