LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Authorities say gunmen have attacked a school in northwestern Nigeria and kidnapped 39 students just weeks after a similar attack in the region blamed on bandits.

According to The Associated Press, 23 females and 16 males went missing.

Several school staff were also taken, The AP reported.

The latest abduction took place Thursday night at the Federal College of Forestry Mechanization in Nigeria's Kaduna state.

The state's commissioner for International Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said the missing students are both male and female.

The latest kidnapping comes just weeks after other bandits kidnapped 279 schoolgirls elsewhere in the northwest.

The students were later released after negotiations with the government.