The police said security operatives were intensifying efforts to arrest the fleeing suspects and rescue other victims.

Police operatives in Plateau have killed a suspected kidnapper and rescued six kidnap victims.

The spokesperson of the police in the state, Alfred Alabo, stated on Thursday in Jos that the kidnappers abducted their victims from Gwalada village in Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State on Wednesday.

"The kidnappers invaded Gwalada village in Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State on Wednesday and kidnapped some residents.

"They moved the victims to a rocky forest between Tumu, Tsaya and Rumfar-Gomna communities in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau.

"The Divisional Police Officer in Jengre, Plateau, led a combined team of operatives, troops of Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), and local security groups to the kidnappers' camp.

"On sighting the security operatives, the kidnappers engaged them in a fierce gun battle, but they were subdued by the superior firepower of the security operatives.

"Six victims were rescued while one of the kidnappers was gunned down, but his cohorts fled with various degrees of bullet wounds.

"Sadly, one Nuhu Titus, a hunter who assisted the security operatives in the rescue operation lost his life in the process," Mr Alabo stated.

He added that security operatives were intensifying efforts to arrest the fleeing suspects and rescue other victims.

Parts of Plateau and Bauchi states have recently seen an increase in incidents of kidnap-for-ransom. Some of the cases are associated with inter-ethnic conflict between herder and farmer communities in the area.