Taliban militants have set free 15 health workers shortly after abducting them at gunpoint in the southern Kandahar province of Afghanistan, local newspaper Outlook reported Saturday.

The militants snatched the Coaster vehicle on Thursday, which was carrying the 15 medical staff, but released the hostages on the same day just after their identity was made clear, the newspaper quoted Abdul Hayee Razmal, deputy director of the provincial health bureau, as saying.

One freed health worker, Ali Ahmad, had told details to journalists in Kandahar.

The vehicle was on the way to a clinic in Ziari district when it was intercepted by some armed Taliban militants, Ahmad said.

"They later freed us after realizing all of us are health workers."

Meanwhile, Qari Muhammad Yousuf, a purported Taliban spokesman, told the press that the Taliban took away the vehicle and freed the hostages just after knowing they were medical workers.

Kandahar has been a hotbed of Taliban and other anti-government insurgents.

Militants have occasionally abducted the staff of the government, foreign companies or organizations in this volatile province.

Source: Xinhua