Nigerian extremists 'kidnap 100 schoolgirls'

Suspected Islamic extremists have abducted about 100 female students from a school in north-east Nigeria, officials said.

But some of the teenagers managed to escape from the back of an open truck, they added.

Some of the girls were abducted last night from a school in Chibok, on the edge of the Sambisa Forest that is an insurgent hideout, Borno state police commissioner Tanko Lawan said.

Gunmen killed a soldier and police officer guarding the school and took off with at least 100 students, a state security service official said.

Islamic extremists have been abducting girls to use as cooks and sex slaves.

Extremists are also blamed for yesterday morning’s explosion at a busy bus station in Nigeria’s capital Abuja that killed at least 75 people and wounded 141.