A “large number of heavily armed bandits” on around 40 motorbikes descended on Iluku Bunu, apparently intending to abduct students and residents, police said in a statement.

Security forces “engaged the hoodlums in a fierce gun duel, forcing the criminals to flee into the surrounding bush”, it added.

Three people were killed in the attack, including a school vice principal, a 70-year-old man and a six-year-old. Police said one of the attackers was killed in the shootout.

While police said the bandits stormed a secondary school, Kogi State’s information commissioner later told AFP the attack had actually taken place at Iluku Bunu town hall, where students were sitting an exam.

“It didn’t happen in the school, the bandits attacked the town hall,” Kingsley Femi Fanwo said, confirming police later intervened.

“Three people were killed and one of the bandits was gunned down,” he added.

Police said there was no evidence so far of a mass abduction, though investigations were ongoing.

Nigeria is frequently hit by mass kidnappings, usually carried out by criminal gangs seeking ransom payments and targeting rural communities with weak security.

Abductions of schoolchildren have surged in recent months, forcing the temporary closure of some schools across the north and centre of the country.

Central Nigeria, including Kogi State, has seen a recent string of violent attacks on schools, some blamed on jihadist groups.

In April, 23 children were abducted from an orphanage in a remote area near the state capital Lokoja, before later being rescued.

In mid-May, dozens of students were kidnapped in Oyo State in the south by armed men described by the military as Boko Haram fighters.

The spread of mass kidnappings further south has raised fears that jihadists, under military pressure in their northern strongholds, are shifting operations to other parts of the country.

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