Foreign Tourists Released After Abduction in Egypt

Eleven European tourists taken hostage in a remote part of Egypt have been released unharmed, Egypt's foreign minister said today.

Aboul Gheit said the group was captured by "gangsters". He did not say how he knew of their release, or whether a ransom was paid.

Gheit was speaking at the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Kidnappers seized 11 European tourists and four Egyptians on Friday near the Sudanese-Egyptian border south of Aswan while on a Sahara desert safari to a plateau famed for its prehistoric cave paintings.

The tour company had been negotiating with the captors, who had demanded millions of dollars in ransom. The group included five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian.

Egypt's tourist industry has previously suffered kidnappings and attacks. In November 1997, 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians were killed in Luxor when an abduction attempt went wrong.

Two years ago, bombings at three locations in the Egyptian resort city of Dahab killed 23 people, including three foreigners. More than 80 others were injured, including foreign tourists.

A crackdown against Islamic militants by the government of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has seen the number of attacks on tourists fall.