Kano: Nigerian police say Boko Haram militants are holding 223 girls of the 276 seized from their school in the country's north east, revising upwards the number of youngsters abducted.

School and government officials in the northeastern state of Borno had previously given lower figures on the numbers being held since the mass abduction nearly three weeks ago in the town of Chibok.

Plea: A demonstration in Lagos calling on the government to rescue the girls. Credit:AP

Gunmen believed to be Islamist fighters stormed the girls' boarding school, forcing them from their dormitories onto trucks and driving them into the bush after a gun battle with soldiers.

Borno state police commissioner Lawan Tanko said on Friday his officers and other security agencies revised the figure after "intensive and extensive investigation, consultations and collation of figures from parents and the school".