Survivor tells of daring escape

Jan 20 2013

A survivor of the Algerian hostage crisis hid from terrorists for 24 hours before making a break for freedom, he said today.

BP employee Alan Wright, 37, was working at the plant in In Amenas on Wednesday when the Islamist terrorists stormed the compound. The father-of-two hid in an office before joining Algerian colleagues in cutting their way through a fence and fleeing.

He told Sky News: "If you have been captured, there's pretty much no escape and it is going to take a miracle to get you out."

Mr Wright, of Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, was working on Wednesday morning when he thought the compound had experienced a power cut and believed it was "nothing serious".

Word soon spread they were under attack so he and three ex-pats and about a dozen Algerians holed up in an office. The men were surprisingly calm, he said, "everyone went into safe mode" and they assessed what they were going to do and stocked up on supplies.

The group got a satellite telephone, taped up their window and locked the door. Soon after they heard gun fire but could not tell how far away it was.

The terrorists had tried to clear all the buildings of workers and one of the jihadists patrolled the area outside their hideaway and tried to trick them out.

Mr Wright told the broadcaster a man walked past saying good morning in a very friendly Arabic voice. He said: "That was the first moment when we thought we are in big trouble here." The terrorist "just walked past and...assumed the building had been emptied".

The group then spent a terrifying nine hours trying to stay out of sight and wondering what was happening. At 6pm they left the office for another room and the ex-pats grew concerned that the Algerian nationals would leave them, as they were free to go, and inadvertently betray their position.

Mr Wright phoned home a few hours later to reassure his family, he said, although he was still in grave danger. He said he did not want to speak to his two young daughters as he did not want his last conversation with them to be on a crackly phone.