Bangladeshi kidnappers released today three Europeans who had been held hostage for a month in a dense forest in the country's southeast, security officials said.
They said the hostages - two Danes and one Briton - were found by a security patrol about five km (three miles) from Kashkhali army camp at 6 a.m. (midnight Irish time).
The Europeans are in good health and they have been escorted to an army camp awaiting for a helicopter to evacuate them, said one officer who asked not to be named. He did not say where they would be flown to.
Danes Mr Torben Mikkelsen and Mr Nils Hulgaard and Briton Mr Tim Selby were seized at gunpoint by suspected tribal rebels at Guniapara in the southeastern Chittagong Hill Tracts on February 16th. The kidnappers had been demanding a ransom of 90 million taka (1.6 million sterling).
The Europeans had been hired by Danish company Kampsax to work on a road development project in the Hill Tracts.