YAOUNDE, July 27 (Reuters) - Boko Haram militants attacked Kolofata, a town in Cameroon's Far North Region near Nigeria, on Sunday and seized several people including the wife of Cameroon's Vice Prime Minister Amadou Ali, a military commander in the region said.

"The situation is very critical here now, and as I am talking to you the Boko Haram elements are still in Kolofata town in a clash with our soldiers," said Colonel Felix Nji Formekong, the second commander of Cameroon's third inter-army military region (RMIA3) based in the regional headquarters Maroua.

"Some of them have already taken away the wife of Vice Prime Minister Ahmadou Ali and her house help while the bodyguards of the Vice Prime Minister have succeeded in taking him out of the town to Mora," Formekong said, adding that there could be more casualties. (Reporting by Tansa Musa; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Hugh Lawson)