MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) - A Nigerian education official says 24 more schoolgirls abducted by Islamic extremists have escaped. That means 44 are free and 85 are still missing.
At least 129 female students were kidnapped from a high school in the extreme northeast of Nigeria before dawn Tuesday.
Those who managed to escape their captors had been found wandering in a forest near their school. Borno state education commissioner Muso Inowu Kubo says some of the latest escapees were found nearly 30 miles away.
Extremists have been attacking schools and slaughtering hundreds of students in the past year. Some have been kidnapped, but this week's mass abduction is unprecedented.
The militants have rampaged this week starting with a bombing attack in the capital, Abuja, that killed 75 people.