Gunmen shot dead a young girl and abducted her brother as they walked to school in the southern Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt on Thursday, a police spokeswoman said.
Gunmen in a car opened fire as they kidnapped the boy in the Rumuokwuta area of central Port Harcourt. Initial police reports said the girl who was shot was the family maid.
“The two children were actually of the same parents. The girl we thought was the maid is actually the sister of the boy who was abducted,” said Rita Inoma-Abbey, police spokeswoman for Rivers state, of which Port Harcourt is the capital.
She said the ages of the children were not yet known.
There has been a surge in kidnappings in recent weeks in the oil-producing Niger Delta, targeting both foreign oil workers and prominent or wealthy Nigerians. Many of the hostages have been released unharmed after payment of a ransom.