CAIRO, Sept 22: A group of 19 foreign tourists and Egyptians kidnapped at gunpoint by bandits while on a desert safari in a remote corner of south-western Egypt have been freed, Egypt’s foreign minister said on Monday.

“They have been released, all of them, safe and sound,” Ahmed Abul Gheit told reporters in New York.

The captives were released near the Libyan-Sudanese-Egyptian border, he added, three days after masked gunmen attacked their group of four off-road vehicles in one of the most isolated parts of the Sahara desert on Friday.

The tourism ministry of Egypt, which relies heavily on tourism earnings, had stressed that “this is an act of banditry not of terrorism.” The Egyptian government had said the group had been taken across the border to Sudan.

Authorities only became aware of the kidnapping when the tour company owner, who was among the missing, used a satellite telephone to call his German wife and tell her of the ransom demand.

The tourism ministry said those snatched included five Germans, five Italians and a Romanian, while MENA said two Egyptian guides, four drivers, a guard and the tour company owner were also abducted.

Tourism Minister Zuhair Garana said that Egypt had not been negotiating with the kidnappers.

German authorities were in touch with them, Garana said, adding that they had asked for a ransom of between eight and 15 million dollars, Egypt’s state new agency MENA said.

He said the group was being held in the area of Karkuk Talh, just across the border in Sudan. MENA said they had been on a safari near Gilf el-Kabir, a rugged and largely uninhabited region on the border with Sudan.

Rebels from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region, which lies less than 300 kilometres south of the Egypt-Sudan border, were quick to deny involvement.

“We have nothing to do with any kidnap,” said Ahmed Hussein Adam, a London-based spokesman for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement.—AFP