Students killed in Nigerian school

Suspected Islamic militants are said to have killed dozens of students in an attack on a northeast Nigerian college.

Survivors say the attackers set fire to a locked hostel and shot and slit the throats of those who escaped through windows. Some were burned alive.

Adamu Garba said he and other teachers estimate 40 students died in the assault that began at around 2am on Tuesday at the Federal Government College Buni Yadi.

Military spokesman Captain Eli Lazarus said soldiers are still gathering corpses so he could not give an exact toll.

It is the latest in a string of attacks blamed on the Boko Haram group – the name means Western education is forbidden – that has caused regional officials to claim the military is losing its war to halt an Islamic uprising in Africa’s biggest oil producer.