Lost British officer found in Nepalese mountain region

A British army officer taken captive along with six locals by Nepal's Maoist rebels was set free yesterday, an official said.

The seven men, kidnapped on Sunday in Baglung district in west Nepal during a drive to recruit Gurkha soldiers, were safe after they were released into the care of a local school teacher, district administrator Prem Narayan Sharma told reporters.

Nepali officials said initially there were two Britons among five kidnapped by the rebels.

But an official, who declined to be named, said yesterday there was only one British army officer in the group.

The area where they were taken is a stronghold of Maoist insurgents fighting since 1996 to topple Nepal's constitutional monarchy.

The rebels oppose the recruitment of Gurkhas by Britain and India, which also takes Nepali nationals into its army.

Gurkhas began serving the UK in 1815 in India.

With Indian independence in 1947, they became part of the British army.

Nearly 3,600 serve now, and in recent years they have taken part in British operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone.

The British army recruits about 230 Gurkhas from Nepal annually.

Hundreds of soldiers and police had been deployed to look for the missing officer on Sunday

The area is a mountainous region with no roads. The troops were searching on foot in territory where the rebels could easily attack.

It was the first time the rebels had abducted foreigners since their insurgency began in 1996.

The British Embassy in Katmandu confirmed that a team of five British Gurkhas had been out of contact since Sunday, but declined to give more details.

Fighting between the Maoist rebels and Nepalese government troops has escalated since the insurgents pulled out of peace talks and a seven-month cease-fire in August.