ALGIERS, Nov 30: A Saudi prince was ambushed and killed by suspected extremists while hunting gazelles in the Algerian desert, newspaper reports said on Saturday.

Reports said the prince, identified as Talal bin Abdelaziz Al-Rasheed, was shot and killed during the night of Thursday to Friday in a confrontation in which nine people were killed and several injured.

He was described as a wealthy businessman and the editor of the Saudi illustrated magazine Fawasel.

The convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles was ambushed in the Djelfa region, 250 kilometres south of Algiers, reports said.

Three Saudi nationals and four Algerians were taken hostage but were later rescued unharmed about 40 kilometres away in an operation by security forces, the daily El Khabar said.

Officials neither confirmed nor denied the reports.

Le Soir d’Algerie said the Saudi government sent a special aircraft to Algiers on Friday to take back the prince’s body.

Newspapers said the attack was probably carried out by members of the largest extremist movement in Algeria, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which in September claimed its allegiance to Al Qaeda network.

The daily L’Expression said the attackers were probably acting in accordance with the instructions of their leader, Osama Bin Laden, who “has called the Saudi royal family a puppet of the Americans.”—AFP