Suspected Islamist gunmen on motorbikes stormed a primary school in Nigeria’s main northern city of Kano yesterday and opened fire on teachers, wounding four of them, police said.

The attackers made teachers at Dan Maliki Primary School lie on the ground before shots rang out, a witness told Reuters.

No one claimed responsibility for the assault, but Islamist militant group Boko Haram – whose nickname means ‘Western education is sinful’ in the northern Hausa language – has targeted schools before.

The movement has killed many hundreds in gun and bomb attacks since it launched an uprising against the Government in 2009, opposing Western cultural influences and seeking to carve an Islamic state out of Africa’s largest oil producer.

The gunmen attacked the head teacher and three other teachers, leaving them severely wounded, said police spokesman Magaji Musa Majiya. Boko Haram was the main suspect, he added.

None of the pupils was harmed.

“They made the teachers lie down on the ground, then there were gunshot sounds and everyone scampered to safety,” said Hauwa Jinjiri, a trader working on the school premises who witnessed the attack.