CHIBOK, Nigeria — Nigerian parents say more than 200 girls and young women abducted from a school by Islamic militants remain missing one week later, despite a "hot pursuit" by security forces and an independent search by desperate parents who went into a dangerous forest.

Dozens of the kidnapped girls managed to escape by jumping from the back of an open truck or hiding in dense forest.

Although the military has mounted a hunt, parents who spent days searching the forest say they did not see any soldiers.

The Defense Ministry said Tuesday it is deploying more troops to searches for the students. The failure of Nigeria's military to rescue the schoolgirls is a major embarrassment to the armed forces, which have said they are containing the Islamic insurgency.