At least 40 people, most of them students, have been killed in a suspected rebel attack on a school in Uganda, officials have said.

Other students have been abducted and a dormitory in the school has been set on fire in the attack, believed to have been carried out by Ugandan militants with ties to the Islamic State group.

The mayor of the town where the attack took place, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, said 41 bodies have so far been recovered, including 38 students.