Goodness Adams, left, a 10-month-old baby, who survived a bomb explosion is carried by her aunt, Grace Sabo, at the Wuse hospital in Abuja, Nigeria. Source: AP

Only eight of more than 100 students are unaccounted for, Major General Chris Olukolade said in a statement that gave no details.

“The others have been freed this evening,” he said.

The government had reported that security forces were in hot pursuit of militants who abducted more than 100 females from a high school yesterday.

Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima told reporters that 129 students were kidnapped and at least 14 freed themselves: four of the students - aged between 16 and 18 - jumped off the back of a truck and 10 escaped into the bush when the extremists asked them to cook and were not paying attention.