The 11 European tourists and eight Egyptians taken hostage in a remote border area of Egypt more than a week ago have been freed and are in good health, state-run Egyptian television said today.
The hostages were on their way back to Cairo, the state television reported, quoting an official source.
Egypt had said four masked gunmen kidnapped the tourists - five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian - and their Egyptian guides and drivers while on a desert safari in a remote border area and then took them into Sudan.
The Italian foreign ministry confirmed that the hostages had been freed.
Half of the kidnappers have been "liquidated", state news agency MENA said.
The Sudanese army said on Sunday it had killed the leader of the kidnappers and five other gunmen in a gun battle near the Egyptian and Libyan border, but that the hostages were in Chad under the protection of 30 gunmen.
One security official said the kidnappers had demanded a ransom of €6 million.
The incident was an embarrassment to the Egyptian government. Tourism accounts for more than 6 per cent of Egypt's GDP.
The remote region where the hostages were seized contains cave paintings thought to be about 10,000 years old. It is accessible by desert vehicle from the conflict zones of Darfur and eastern Chad.
Reuters