Kidnappers Execute Resort Staff

Five workers from a Malaysian holiday resort have been executed in the Philippines by suspected Islamic extremists who kidnapped them earlier this month, a survivor said yesterday.

The Philippine police and military gave conflicting accounts of the reported killings, which were said to have been carried out after the hostages' families failed to pay a £65,000 ransom.

Police sources said Nonoy Alkusil was rescued during a firefight with the kidnappers in the Tawi Tawi island chain in the south-west of the Philippines, close to the Malaysian province of Sabah, on Borneo, where the hostages were taken on October 5.

The military, however, said he escaped from the gunmen while his companions were being executed. The bodies have not been found and Philippine marines are still chasing the kidnappers, thought to be members of Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist group.

Mr Alkusil said the five men and a woman who were kidnapped - all reportedly employees of the Borneo Paradise resort - were told on Monday night to undress and run along a beach. He said he escaped by running as fast as he could and assumed the others were gunned down behind him.