At the least 121 school girls abducted this week by Boko Haram militants have been freed from Borno forest, as eight is still missing. The girls were found and freed by Nigerian military men, who have been combing the forest.  One of the alleged attackers has been captured, while a military search-and-rescue operation was ongoing to ensure the safety of the remaining students. It was not immediately clear how the girls became free. Their conditions were also not clear.

Earlier, vigilantes and volunteers aided in the search near the northeastern town of Chibok, where heavily armed men descended on the Government Secondary School on Monday night as the girls slept in their dormitories.

After a long gun battle with soldiers guarding the school, the militants herded the girls onto buses, vans and trucks and drove off, flanked by motorcycles.

Rescue teams, aided by surveillance helicopters, moved deeper into the vast forest that extends into neighboring Cameroon and other states in the region.

Soldiers and the Civilian Joint Task Force, as well as volunteers from the area, are still combing the forest to rescue the school girls. They are aided by surveillance helicopters to locate the kidnappers' position.