The Nigerian Boko Haram terror group stormed a secondary school yesterday in what was being reported as their largest mass abduction attempt since the notorious 2014 Chibok kidnappings.

More than 100 schoolgirls were feared to have been kidnapped at first, but last night officials in the country reportedly said as many as 76 had been rescued, amid fears two had died.

Militants from the jihadist group had entered the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Dapchi, north-east Nigeria, on Monday evening.

Abdulmaliki Sumonu, the police commissioner of Yobe state, originally said 815 students had returned to the school out of 926. Some 33 were still unaccounted for last night.

He denied that kidnappings had been confirmed, although local media and agencies cited parents girls had been kidnapped.