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Download Suspected Islamic extremists attacked an agricultural college in the dead of night, gunning down dozens of students as they slept in dormitories and torching classrooms in an ongoing Islamic uprising in northeast Nigeria, the school's provost said. As many as 50 students may have been killed in the attack that began at about 1 am on Sunday in rural Gujba, Provost Molima Idi Mato of the Yobe State College of Agriculture said. Islamist sect Boko Haram has intensified attacks on civilian targets in recent weeks in reaction to a military offensive against its insurgency. Boko Haram and spinoff Islamist groups such as the al-Qaida-linked Ansaru have become the biggest security threat in Africa's second-largest economy and top oil exporter. "They attacked our students while they were sleeping in their hostels. They opened fire on them," Mato said. He said he could not give an exact death toll as security forces were still recovering bodies. Abdullahi Garba, a student at the college, recounted that the gunmen shot sporadically. "Surviving students are at the moment fleeing the school premises. We really want to reunite with our families right now," he said. Most of the students fear more attacks by the gunmen, he added. The Nigerian military has collected 42 bodies and taken 18 injured students to Damaturu Specialist Hospital, said a military intelligence official, who insisted on anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. | 
