DHAKA: Islamic militants from the Boko Haram group in north-eastern Nigeria have attacked a school and shot some students.

The military has said, reports the BBC.

The BBC’s Will Ross, in Nigeria, says it is not clear how many pupils were killed. But Reuters news agency says that as many as 29 died.

It quotes police commissioner Sanusi Rufai as saying that the bodies of some of them ‘were burned to ashes’.

The attack took place in troubled Yobe state, the military said.

Boko Haram, whose name means ‘Western education is sinful’ in the northern Hausa language, has frequently attacked schools in the past.

Scores of people were killed in two attacks last week. In one incident militants destroyed a whole village and shot terrified residents as they tried to escape.

BDST: 1737 HRS, FEB 25, 2014