Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told reporters in New York that the kidnapped 19 foreign tourists and Egyptians on a desert safari in southwestern Egypt on Monday have been freed, said reports reaching here from the UN headquarters.
According to the reports, Abul Gheit announced the news to reporters during a meeting with his U.S. counterpart Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly due to open on Tuesday.
The captives were released near the Libyan-Sudanese-Egyptian border and all of them are "safe and sound," the top Egyptian diplomat was quoted as saying.
No immediate confirmation is available in Cairo at the moment, but Egyptian Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garana said earlier that the kidnapped are now in Karkuk Talha, an area inside the Sudanese territories adjacent to the Egyptian border, and The kidnappers are currently negotiating with the German side to get a ransom to free the hostages.
A group of foreign tourists have been kidnapped in Egypt on Monday. The foreigners were taken by bandits while they were on an expedition in the desert between Aswan and Sudan, reported al-Jazeera TV channel.
The report said that Egyptian Tourism Minister confirmed that a group about 15 foreign tourists were abducted by unidentified individuals. Among them are five Germans and Italians, a Romanian and four Egyptians.
The Egyptian government spokesman Magdy Rady told media that a group of 19 people, including 15 foreign tourists, were kidnapped in southern Egypt and taken across the border to neighboring Sudan.
The spokesman also said the foreign tourists were on a trip in Egypt's remote western desert near the Sudanese-Egyptian borders when they kidnapped Monday.
Source:Xinhua
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