Boko Haram attacks town where 200 girls were kidnapped

The radical Islamist group Boko Haram attacked the north-eastern Nigerian town of Chibok, where it abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in mid-April.

Militants drove into Chibok Thursday night and started shooting randomly before heading to the town centre to announce Chibok would become part of an Islamist caliphate, residents were quoted as saying by  the online news agency Sahara Reporters said Friday.

Several people were reported to have been killed.

The Boko Haram militants came in large numbers but were met by soldiers and vigilantes, who engaged them in a fierce battle to prevent them from taking over the town, the website The Cable quoted a community leader as saying.

A Boko Haram leader recently denied reports that the group had agreed to a ceasefire with the government and would return the kidnapped girls to their families.

He said the girls, whose abduction from their school sparked global outrage, had been married off.