Gunmen reportedly arrived at the school in Chibok, Borno state, late last night, and ordered the hostel²'s teenage residents on to lorries.

 

The attackers are believed to be from the Islamist group, Boko Haram, whose militants³ frequently target schools.

 

On Monday, bombings blamed on the group killed more than 70 people in the capital, Abuja.

 

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden" in the local Hausa language, has been waging an armed campaign for an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

 

 

A government official in Borno state told the BBC around 100 girls were thought to have been abducted from the school. 

 

The exact number of missing students had yet to be established, as some of the girls had managed to return to their homes.

 

Parents had earlier told the BBC that more than 200 students had been taken from the school.

 

Residents in the area reported hearing explosions followed by gunfire last night, said BBC reporter Mohammed Kabir Mohammed in the capital, Abuja.

 

"Many girls were abducted by the rampaging gunmen who stormed the school in a convoy⁴ of vehicles," AFP news agency quotes Emmanuel Sam, an education official in Chibok, as saying. 

 

Another witness, who requested anonymity⁵, told AFP that gunmen overpowered soldiers who had been deployed⁶ to provide extra security ahead of annual exams.

 

A girl, who managed to escape and wished not to be named, told the BBC she and fellow students were sleeping when armed men burst into their hostel.

 

"Three men came into our room and told us not to panic. We later found out later that they were among the attackers," she said.

 

The girls said she and her schoolmates were taken away in a convoy, which had to slow down after some of the vehicles developed a fault.

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