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315 pupils and staff thought to have been taken on FridayAttack is one of worst mass kidnappings in NigeriaMore than 300 children and staff are thought to have been abducted from a Catholic school in Nigeria this week, one of the worst mass kidnappings ever recorded there. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said Saturday it had raised its estimate of those taken from St Mary's School in Niger state on Friday to 315 from an earlier estimate of 227 following a "verification exercise". "This now makes it 303 students (and) ... 12 teachers, bringing the total number of abducted persons to 315," it said in a statement, adding the new figure included 88 students who had been captured as they tried to escape.The kidnapping comes amid a surge of attacks by armed groups and insurgents in Nigeria, which has been under heightened scrutiny since US President Donald Trump threatened military action this month over the treatment of Christians.If confirmed, the revised number of people taken at the school would exceed the 276 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram militants in Chibok in 2014. The Niger state government said on Friday the school had ignored an instruction that boarding schools should be closed because of intelligence indicating a high chance of attacks.But Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, the CAN chairman in Niger, said no such warning had been issued after travelling to the school on Friday night. "We are working with the government and security agencies to see that our children are rescued and brought back safely," he said in the CAN statement. The central government has ordered nearly 50 federal colleges to close and public schools in some states have also been shut.Friday's mass kidnapping was the third such incident in Nigeria this week alone. On Monday, 25 schoolgirls were taken from a boarding school in Kebbi state, while on Wednesday 38 worshippers were taken by gunmen in an attack on a church in Kwara state.A senior US State Department official said on Thursday the US was considering actions such as sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to compel the Nigerian government to better protect Christian communities and religious freedom. Nigeria says claims that Christians face persecution misrepresent a complex security situation and do not take into account efforts to safeguard religious freedom.

A black-clad gunman killed two children and wounded 17 other people Wednesday, when he opened fire on students at a Minneapolis Catholic school, authorities said.The assailant, a man in his early 20s, fired dozens of rounds through the church windows and then took his own life, officials said. He was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, they said."This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible," Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara told reporters.The shooting occurred two days after school started at Annunciation Catholic School, a private elementary school with about 395 students connected to a Roman Catholic church in a residential area in the southeast part of Minnesota's largest city.Local TV showed parents ducking under yellow police crime tape and leading students out of the school.Officials said the shooter did not have an extensive criminal history. They did not provide his name and said they were trying to identify a motive.Law enforcement was investigating multiple online videos to determine if they were posted by the shooter, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.Local hospitals said they were treating 15 children and two adults, with many suffering gunshot wounds.School shootings occur on a regular basis in the US, spurring ongoing debates about gun laws and school safety. There have been more than 140 such incidents so far this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database."Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church," Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said at a news conference, visibly angry.US President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the shooting and said the FBI was on the scene. "Please join me in praying for everyone involved!" he said on social media.The US department of homeland security is in touch with local authorities and monitoring the situation, Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem said on social media.There have been three other shootings in the midwestern city since Tuesday afternoon, including one at a high school, that have together left three people dead and seven wounded, according to police.Wednesday's shooting did not appear to be related to the others, O'Hara said.Minneapolis has experienced a significant rise in homicides in the years following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, which prompted nationwide protests, civil disturbances and staffing shortages in the city's police department. The city recorded 54 homicides last year, down from 71 in 2021 but well above the 29 recorded in 2019.In June, Minnesota also experienced an incident of political violence, when a gunman posing as a police officer allegedly assassinated a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in their home, and wounded another lawmaker and his wife.The suspect was arrested after a massive two-day manhunt and faces state and federal murder charges.Minnesota state law requires background checks for all gun sales and the state as a whole has a gun death rate below the national average, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence prevention group.