234 girls kidnapped from Nigeria school

Some 234 girls are missing from the northeast Nigerian school attacked last week by Islamic extremists, significantly more than the 85 reported by education officials, parents told the state governor Monday. The higher figure came out a week after the kidnappings when the Borno state governor insisted a military escort take him to the town, ABC News reported. Parents told the governor that officials would not listen to them when they drew up their list of names of missing children and the total reached 234. The discrepancy in the figures could not immediately be resolved. Security sources have said they are in "hot pursuit" of the abductors, but so far they have not rescued any of the girls and young women, aged between 16 and 18. Parents and other town residents have joined the search for the students in the Sambisa Forest which borders Chibok town and is a known hideout for the militants. Boko Haram was on a rampage last week, staging four attacks in three days that began with a massive explosion during rush hour at a busy bus station Monday morning in Abuja, the capital in the center of the country, which killed at least 75 people and wounded 141. Nigeria's military and government had claimed to have the militants on the run and contained in a remote northeast corner on the border with Cameroon. But extremist attacks have increased in frequency and become ever deadlier this year with more than 1,500 people killed so far, compared to an estimated 3,600 between 2010 and 2013