All nine students and a teacher kidnapped from a school in English-speaking Cameroon have been freed.

The private school on the outskirts of Kumba, in the South-West region's Meme district, had come under attack from gunmen on motorbikes on Tuesday.

The authorities have blamed separatist fighters for the abduction.

A senior government official in Meme, Chamberlin Ndong Nto’ou, told the BBC that three students were released on Tuesday night as troops raided a separatist camp, killing two fighters and capturing one.

This allowed seven of the hostages to escape – the other six students and a teacher were abandoned by the gunmen as they were pursued by the security forces.

The teacher is said to be receiving medical attention in the hospital. The students have been handed over to their parents.

Mr Nto'ou said two other separatists were killed on Wednesday morning as they tried to bury their colleagues, including the head of the group, who was known as “Man of Locks”.

The attack took place at noon on Tuesday causing pandemonium on the campus of the Lords Bilingual Academy, with many of the children jumping over the school fence to avoid being kidnapped.

Many of the students remained unaccounted until later on Tuesday.

Earlier reports suggested that 20 students had been kidnapped largely because of the confusion that characterised the incident.

This comes barely three weeks after 79 schoolchildren, a teacher, and principal were kidnapped from Presbyterian Secondary School in Bamenda, the capital of North-West province, and later released.

Kidnappings of students and teachers are becoming all too common in the restive English-speaking areas of Cameroon - the North-West and South-West regions.

Those also targeted include government officials and other high profile personalities.

Some nuns travelling to the town of Kumbo in the North-West region were kidnapped recently and released shortly after.

Most of the hostages are freed after ransoms have been paid.

Separatists are insisting that schools must stay shutdown in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon until government organises a referendum that will decide whether they can remain with the majority French-speaking Republic of Cameroon or break away and form their own state which they want to call Ambazonia.

Protests over the increasing use of French in courts and schools in Cameroon's English-speaking heartlands morphed into violence in 2017.