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Margaret Hill, the three-year-old British girl abducted by gunmen in southern Nigeria last week, was released on Sunday night and returned to her parents. She was unharmed apart from a rash of mosquito bites, and apparently in good spirits as she told reporters on the telephone that she was "fine".

The little girl, who was seized from a chauffeur-driven car on her way to school last Thursday, was released after Nigerian security services piled pressure on the group holding her, according to her father, Mike Hill. "She's in a bit of a trance," he said. "She is covered in mosquito bites. I am going to have to get her to the clinic, because she will need some injections. She's been in the bush. And I don't think they fed her very much."

"There was no ransom paid," he told Sky News. "The kidnappers told my wife to go and meet them. She was released due to the pressure put on the people by the security services in Nigeria."

Mike Hill carries his daughter Margaret after Sunday's release of the three-year-old in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She was released four days after being kidnapped by unknown gunmen who snatched her from the car in which she was being driven to school.

The gang grabbed Margaret in the Nigerian oil capital, Port Harcourt, smashing the windows of the car with their weapons and stabbing the driver in the arm before snatching the child. Her Nigerian-born mother, Oluchi Hill, received a call hours later saying they would kill her daughter unless her husband agreed to swap places with the child. Police advised him against doing so, while the Foreign Office in London and the Nigerian president, Umaru Yar'Adua, demanded her safe release.

Hill, who has lived in Nigeria for more than 10 years, is a British oil industry consultant working for a Texan company, Lone Star. On Sunday night he let Margaret answer reporters' questions on the telephone.

"Fine", she replied when asked how she was. "OK", she said when asked how it felt to see her mother and father again.

It is believed the kidnappers kept her in a small hut in the Niger Delta, a vast malarial wetlands.

Hill said he never spoke to the kidnappers, who had insisted on communicating only with his wife because she was seen as the "weakest link". On Sunday night, speaking from the headquarters of the state security services, Mrs Hill said: "I am very very happy."

The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, said he was "delighted" that the child was safe and thanked those who worked to secure her freedom. "I am grateful to the Nigerian authorities for all their help and I hope the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice," he said. "Foreign Office consular staff in Nigeria have been working closely with the (Nigerian) authorities throughout and, of course, Margaret Hill's family, and will continue to provide consular support as required."

Last month the Foreign Office warned all British nationals not to go to Port Harcourt or the surrounding core oil-producing region of Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa states following a spate of kidnappings in the country's oilfields. Abductions have increasingly been carried out by criminal gangs demanding ransoms.

Margaret was the third child to be seized in six weeks, but she was the first foreign youngster to be abducted.

Since the beginning of this year, 149 expatriates, including nine Britons, and 21 Nigerians have been abducted. Most have been released after payment of a ransom. Eighteen are still being held. Four foreigners and 20 Nigerians have been killed in the course of abductions.

Hill said the kidnapping would not force him to leave the country. He added: "I don't have a problem with Nigeria. I think 99% of the people are quite good, but it's the 1% of people that spoil them."

(China Daily via agencies July 10, 2007)