Three South Korean tourists held by local Bedouins in Egypt's South Sinai have been released unharmed on Saturday night, a local security official said, Xinhua reported.
The three Koreans and their Egyptian tour guide were freed due to the efforts of some prominent Bedouins who pressed the kidnappers to release them, said Mohamed Naguib, security chief of South Sinai.
The tourists were first sent to a police station and then to their hotel, he added.
Some armed Bedouins kidnapped the three South Koreans on their way back from the Saint Catherine monastery to Sharm el-Sheihk in the same area where two American tourists had been briefly kidnapped earlier this month.
This is the third kidnapping on the Sinai peninsula since the end of January. On Jan. 31, local Bedouins held 25 Chinese workers to demand the release of their relatives in Arish, North Sinai. The Chinese were released 16 hours later unharmed.
On Feb. 3, two American tourists were kidnapped briefly in South Sinai by Bedouins before their safe release.
The security situation in Sinai deteriorated after the fall of Egypt's former President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. The pipeline exporting natural gas to Israel and Jordan in Arish has been repeatedly attacked, leading to the suspension of the gas supply.
Egypt's Bedouins release three South Korean tourists
Three South Korean tourists held by local Bedouins in Egypt's South Sinai have been released unharmed on Saturday night, a local security official said.
