RIYADH (AFP) – Saudi security forces have freed two German girls kidnapped in Yemen last year and they are undergoing medical check-ups, the Saudi interior ministry announced on Tuesday.
“Security forces in communication with Yemen counterparts were able to recover two German girls in the border region between the two countries on Monday,” the interior ministry said in a statement released on the SPA news agency.
“They were part of a group kidnapped by criminal elements last year,” it added.
The girls were apparently part of a group of five Germans — a married couple and three children — and one Briton seized in Yemen’s northern mountains in June last year.
The bodies of two Germans and a South Korean who were kidnapped along with the group were found soon after the abduction, raising fears for the safety of the remaining hostages.
The interior ministry said that the German embassy in Riyadh has been notified and the girls had been taken for medical tests.
An official at the German embassy in Riyadh said they could not comment at the moment on the report.