Suspected secessionists in Cameroon have kidnapped dozens of pupils from a boarding school in an attack reminiscent of Boko Haram’s abduction of schoolgirls in Nigeria in 2014.

The attackers arrived at Presbyterian secondary school Nkwen in Bamenda, the capital of the English-speaking north-west region, on Sunday night. They kidnapped more than 80 people, including the principal, a teacher and a driver, as well as 79 students, according to the regional administrator. Security guards who usually man the entrance to the school were nowhere to be seen, sources said.

One student, who witnessed the attack but was left behind, described being woken up in the middle of the night by about seven armed men who beat and slapped the children as they made them leave their dormitories.

“They knocked ​on ​the door and we opened​ it,​​​​ ​even though we did not really know the people who were knocking,” the student told the Guardian. “Some of us were hesitating but others quickly opened [it].​ ​When they came in,​ ​all of us went under our beds.​ ​They asked us to come outside.​ ​As we went outside,​ ​they started beating some of us,​ ​slapping them​.

“They tried to bump into another dormitory but it didn’t open. They threaten​ed​ the students to open the door or else they would be shot.​ ​All the other dorms heeded the threat.​

“They brought us to the administrative block and brought in the principal.​ ​They selected some students and asked us to lie on the ground.​ ​We laid there till morning. They asked us that before 5pm,​ ​all of us should go back home. They threatened to return to campus and kill those they will meet still here.”

A teacher who lived by the school said he heard sounds of an attack but did not venture out, fearing for his safety. “I heard a strong sound at night, like that of a gun. I was scared,” said Julius Nyamboli. “We quickly switched off the lights and went to bed. In the morning, I saw many people returning from campus with doubtful faces. I quickly rushed there and realised that students were not on campus.”

Both boys and girls had been taken from their dormitories, said another staff member who arrived in the morning to find the school in chaos. “The children were all in panic. We played our role to calm them down,” she said. “We tried to assemble the children. We took them to the chapel for morning devotion and carried out the roll-call, to ascertain who was there or not. Before we finished, the military interrupted.”

Soldiers began verifying how many students had been kidnapped. News was trickling back to parents of the abducted children as staff held a crisis meeting on Monday.

“I am very confused. I am all alone,” said one woman, a widow whose 16-year-old daughter was taken. “I went to the school and she was not on campus. I can’t even talk. I just want them to free my daughter. She is innocent.”

Another mother, whose 15-year-old son was among the abductees, was preparing to travel from the capital of Yaoundé to Bamenda to pick up her other two children from the school. “I am so devastated. I am just too stressed. I can’t even believe this,” she said. Like most of the parents and teachers, she asked not to be named for safety reasons. “The school has asked us to be calm, [and said] that they will get back to us,” she said.

Sources say the kidnappers have not yet asked for any ransom, but want the school to send the remaining students home before they release the abductees.

Most schools in English-speaking Cameroon have been shut down since December 2016, when an uprising began. The authorities’ violent crackdown on peaceful protesters demonstrating about the use of French in classrooms and courts in the English-speaking regions escalated the crisis, and rebel groups are now pitted against the army. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced and many more live in fear.

The schools that are still functioning have been doing so despite threats, which pushed many Christian schools to host displaced students from other schools, as was the case with Nkwen.

A similar incident took place in September in nearby Bafut, where nine students were kidnapped from another Presbyterian-owned boarding school by suspected secessionists, as the academic year started. The students spent three days in captivity, after which, according to family members, they were released on ransoms of 1m CFA francs (£1,330).

The student interviewed said that the kidnappers had pointed out the difference between their living conditions and that of the rebels. “One of them said our parents are sending us to school while they are suffering, sleeping in the bushes,​ ​while we are sleeping on beds.​ ​They asked us if our parents want to prove they have much money.”