Egypt

Tourists still missing after Egypt says they were freed

Article published on the 2008-09-23 Latest update 2008-09-23 09:08 TU

Tourists in Egypt.
(Photo : Reuters)

The 19 people, including eleven European tourists, were kidnapped by masked gunmen on Monday in a remote stretch of desert in Egypt and taken to Sudan. Egyptian officials said they are still missing despite giving assurances yesterday that they had been freed.

“Egyptian efforts are ongoing to release the abducted tourists,” the state news agency said, quoting an unnamed government official, after Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit had said Monday in New York that they had been freed “safe and sound”.

The foreign minister’s remarks were “inexact” the report said.

The tour group was travelling in four off-road vehicles in the remote Sudan-Libya-Egypt border region when it came under attack by masked gunmen. The tourists were in one of the most remote parts of the Sahara desert with their Egyptian guides to visit prehistoric cave paintings.

Egyptian authorities first learned of the kidnapping when the Egyptian tour leader called his German wife by satellite telephone to inform her of the ransom.

According to the report, the tourists and guides were taken across the border to Karkuk Talh, in Sudan.

German authorities are in touch with the group, and the ransom is reportedly between five and ten million euros.