I could hear gunfire - it was clear people were dying: Algeria siege survivors tell of escape
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A survivor of the Algeria hostage crisis told how he barricaded himself in his room for four days to escape execution by terrorists who stormed the gas plant.
Peter Hunter, 53, lived off bottles of water and biscuits before being rescued by Algerian special forces when the siege ended on Saturday.
At least 57 hostages are thought to have died — including six Britons and a British resident — along with 32 Islamist militants at the In Amenas gas plant in the Sahara. Twenty-two UK captives have returned home safely. Victims included London-based Carlos Estrada, a BP vice-president who lived with his wife and two children in Chelsea. He made no more than two visits a year to the facility and is believed to have died in the initial attack on a bus taking workers to the airport last Wednesday.
Paul Morgan, 46, the plant’s British head of security, died “doing the job he loved”, his family said. Two other British victims were named as Kenneth Whiteside, 59, and Garry Barlow, 49.
Mr Hunter, a construction supervisor from Durham, said he feared for his life as he listened to gunfire raging outside his building. He told the Standard: “How do you describe being stuck in the middle of a war zone? I was in a 10ft by 8ft room with the doors locked, keeping low. I had packets of biscuits and tins of tuna.
“I could hear machinegun fire, heavy guns, and the constant ‘ta-ta-ta’ of other weapons. It was clear people must have been dying.” On Wednesday, he told wife Kerry, 42, he was OK before his phone battery died. “She was extremely worried. Once we were out, there was elation. As soon as I heard her voice I could not get the words out.”
The father of two was debriefed by British security services and the FBI at Heathrow on Sunday. He added: “It is great to be home but there are colleagues who will never come home. We were a very close family out there.”
Iain Strachan, 38, and his friend Darren Matthews, 29, kept a video diary of their ordeal as they hid in the darkness while rockets and mortars exploded around them. Mr Strachan, an electrical and instrument inspector from Renfrewshire in Scotland, said: “I came out of my bedroom and all hell broke loose. There was machinegun fire and bullets whizzing everywhere so I locked my door. We were in there for two days.
“We had a text message from the other boys barricaded inside saying that hostages had been taken. We knew early on that Paul Morgan had died. I’ve never been so terrified in my life.”
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Engineer David Murray, 47, from Liverpool, said: “I can’t stop thinking of what we all went through out there. I am finding it hard to face the truth that, although many of us have survived, we have lost too many dear friends.”
Father-of-two Mr Barlow, a systems supervisor from Liverpool, is reported to have told his wife Lorraine, 52: “I’m sitting here at my desk with Semtex strapped to my chest. The local army have tried and failed to storm the plant and [the militants] said if that happens again they are going to kill us all.”
The family of Mr Whiteside, a project manager, said he would be “greatly missed”. He was originally from Glasgow but lived in Johannesburg. His family, including wife Catherine, daughters Alana and Nova, and brother Robert, said: “Kenny was very much loved. He was a kind-hearted, easy-going man. He worked hard, loved to travel, and lived life at 100 miles an hour. Our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who have lost loved ones.”
DNA tests are being carried out on bodies found at the gas plant to try to establish the fate of the three Britons still unaccounted for. The siege ended when troops mounted an assault on Saturday, saying the militants had begun killing foreign hostages.
The hunt intensified for one-eyed Islamist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who claimed responsibility for the atrocity in a video on behalf of al Qaeda. World leaders are likely to debate extremism in North Africa when they come to Britain for a G8 summit in June. David Cameron’s officials said he is keen to use the British G8 presidency to press the case for more action.