LAGOS: Nigerian police were on Wednesday hunting three girls who were abducted by armed men from their school on the outskirts of the country’s biggest city, Lagos.

The abduction of students from school is rare in Lagos, Nigeria’s sprawling megacity of 20 million people and the country’s commercial hub.

“A serious rescue mission for the three students is ongoing. We have launched a manhunt for the abductors and we are making a headway,” Lagos state police spokeswoman Dolapo Badmus told AFP.

In Nigeria’s northeast, Boko Haram Islamists infamously abducted 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in April 2014. Fifty-seven escaped in the days that followed but 219 are still being held.

Several thousand women and young girls have been captured since the start of the insurgency in 2009.

No group yet has claimed responsibility for the latest abduction in Lagos and the exact motive is unknown.