Dozens of gunmen raided a university in northwestern Nigeria at predawn Friday, kidnapping 24 female students and eight other people while holding pursuing troops at bay.

Six of the abducted students were rescued while one of six kidnapped welders escaped, a military officer, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the rescue operation, said on Saturday.

The bandits broke through the windows of three female hostels of a Federal University near Sabon Gida village  outside the state capital Gusau and took the occupants away, residents told Agence France-Presse.

"They took away at least 24 female students from the hostels along with two male neighbors, one of whom is a staff (member) of the university," Sabon Gida resident Sahabi Musa said.

The attackers went into the university and seized nine welders working on a new building while they were sleeping,  Shehu Hashimu, another resident who corroborated Musa's account, said.

"The attackers had a field day. They operated in the village from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. unchallenged before troops arrived," Hashimu said.

Troops deployed from Gusau, 20 kilometers away and engaged the attackers in a gunfight but a group of the kidnappers herded the hostages away while another group faced the soldiers, the two sources said.

Yazid Abubakar, Zamfara state police spokesperson, confirmed the attack but declined to provide details, saying security personnel were working to free the captives in a forest close to the nearby town of Tsafe.

WITH AFP