A group of 30 gunmen have used dynamite to force their way into a
well-guarded compound in northern Nigeria and seize a French engineer,
police say.
Two Nigerian guards were killed in the attack, said Katsina state
police commissioner Abdullahi Magaji.
As the unknown group fled, they attacked a police station, he said.
Katsina has been relatively unscathed by months of violence in
northern Nigeria carried out by Boko Haram Islamist militants.
Mr Magaji told the AFP news agency he did not think the militant
group, which is based in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, was
behind the kidnapping.
The kidnapped man worked for a French company on a wind power project
in the town of Rimi, about 25km (15 miles) from Katsina city, reports
the AFP news agency.
Two security guards were shot dead in the attack, while a police
officer was wounded, the police commissioner said.
Earlier this year, a kidnapped German engineer was killed by his
captors during a failed rescue bid. The BBC's Wills Ross in Nigeria
says it is thought the group holding him had links to al-Qaeda's North
African wing, which is active in neighbouring Niger,and Mali.
A British and an Italian hostage were also killed this year during a
similar attempt to free them by British and Nigerian forces.
There has been a spate of recent kidnappings in southern Nigeria,
where the motive is usually a ransom.
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