One of the victims of Nigeria's mass schoolgirl abduction escaped by jumping from the truck that was driving her away and clinging to the branch of an overhanging tree, her relatives revealed on Wednesday.

Monday Yuguda, 16, seized her moment when the open-topped truck she was travelling in slowed to a crawl as it drove by night through dense forest .

With her Boko Haram captors unable to see her clearly, she stood up, grabbed a low-hanging branch and clung to it until the convoy had moved on to a safe distance. She then made her way back through the forest to the town of Chibok, where the attack took place, an uncle told The Telegraph.

"She was in a convoy of several vehicles, and two of those ahead of her own car got engine problems during the course of the night," said Dauda Iliya, 53. "That slowed them down, and as they were driving through the bush, it got slow enough for her grab a branch. It was something like out of the movies."

Details of Ms Yuguda's remarkable escape emerged as Nigerian police offered a 50 million naira ($300,000) reward to anyone who could give information leading to the rescue of the 276 girls still missing.