Initial reports said a gunfight broke out in the nearby town of Piagapo after authorities caught up with the kidnappers who had earlier commandeered a jeepney loaded with passengers coming from Iligan City.
"We recovered all the victims safely," said Brig. Gen. Ben Dolorfino, 2nd Marine Brigade commander and Task Force Ranao chief.
Dolorfino said one of the police rescuers was killed during the firefight with the kidnappers.
The slain policeman was identified as Police Officer 1 Edris Sultan of the Philippine National Police-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Dolorfino said the kidnappers belong to the Magaloyan kidnap-for-ransom gang operating in Lanao del Sur.
He said their initial reports also indicated two of the kidnappers were killed by pursuing lawmen in the area.
Even as the military identified the group behind the kidnapping, no other group claimed responsibility for the abduction in the area — a known hotbed of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrilla activity.
The 10 kidnappers withdrew after losing control of the fleeing teenage schoolgirls, who later told the rescuers their abductors were armed with handguns and assault rifles.
The gunmen forcibly took over the passenger jeepney and ordered the driver to stop at this town.
They were later joined by six others who helped drag away the students and two members of staff from a high school attached to the state-run Mindanao State University (MSU). The students were on their way to take a college entrance exam when they were abducted at 7 a.m.
The hostages were marched off at gunpoint toward a mountainous area north of Lanao Lake, with the gunmen freeing six of the girls along the way, Dolorfino said.
Some of the six suffered blisters on their feet from their long march, but were otherwise unharmed, he added.
By the time police and military forces caught up with the gang eight hours later, they were still holding 14 schoolgirls and two men in Barangay Gacap in Piagapo.
The gunmen tried to fight their way out and abandoned their captives in haste, enabling the police to rescue the hostages.
"In the course of (the) firefight, the hostages took advantage and escaped. They were all safe and unharmed," Dolorfino said.
The military said the MILF, now in a ceasefire agreement and engaged in peace talks with the government, helped the authorities in pursuing the kidnappers by blocking their escape route.
"We’re in hot pursuit and the MILF is helping us block the kidnappers’ path," Marine Col. Arman Melo earlier told reporters.
The freed captives told the military that the kidnappers were young bandits.
At first, it was thought the abductors were not affiliated with any prominent crime group.
"Initial reports were that this was a bandit group out to make a fast buck," Dolorfino said earlier. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jaime Laude, Roel Pareño, John Unson, AFP, AP