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Army confirms tourist's death
30/07/2003 13:39 - (SA)
Algiers - The Algerian army has confirmed the death of a German woman who was among 15 European tourists abducted by Algerian Islamic extremists in the Sahara desert, an Algerian newspaper said on Wednesday.
The daily El Watan quoted "military sources" as saying that the woman, identified in German media reports as 45-year-old Michaela Spitzer, had died of heat stroke "more than 10 days ago" and had been buried in the desert.
The sources also confirmed reports that the group holding the hostages had crossed the border into neighbouring Mali, taking the surviving hostages with them.
Of the woman, El Watan reported: "She couldn't stand the heat. She died of heatstroke. She was buried more than 10 days ago."
Temperatures in the region range up to 50° at this time of year.
German media reports said on Tuesday that the relatives of Spitzer, a divorced mother of two, had been informed of her death by the German foreign ministry.
They said Spitzer was reported missing on March 8. She had been travelling with three others, including an elderly couple.
Her group was one of several parties of European travellers who went missing between mid-February and mid-March while trekking in small groups without guides in the remote southern Algerian desert.
Of the original 32 hostages, 17 were freed in an Algerian army raid in May, leaving 10 Germans, four Swiss and a Dutchman in the hands of their abductors.
Algerian security forces reportedly reached a deal with the alleged abductors, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), to escort the Europeans to Mali.
- AFX
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