DOZENS of schoolchildren held captive by gunmen for three months in northern Nigeria were freed today and taken to be reunited with their families.

Pupils as young as five arrived in Minna, the Niger state capital, on a white minibus and were greeted by state governor Abubakar Sani Bello before being served meals.

Authorities previously said that 136 children had been taken in the incident in May, along with several teachers. It was not immediately known how many students were released.

As many as six children may have died in captivity due to harsh conditions, according to local media reports.

They were kidnapped when gunmen on motorcycles attacked the Salihu Tanko Islamic School in Niger state in late May.

Some infants were left behind as they could not keep pace when the gunmen hurriedly moved those abducted into a forest.

Head teacher Abubakar Garba Alhassan did not provide details of their release, but parents of the students have struggled to raise the ransoms demanded by their abductors over the past weeks.

More than 1,000 students have been forcibly taken from their schools in a series of abductions this year, according to figures previously confirmed by police.

While most of those kidnapped have been released, at least 200 are still held by their abductors.

Many schools have been forced to close due to the risk of kidnapping as the government has failed to stop the attacks.

Earlier this year, gunmen demanded sums worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in ransom after an abduction at a university in the northern state of Kaduna.

The gunmen killed five students to scare parents into raising the money and later released 14 others.