The French tourists were in Hamed Ela just after the group that was abducted on Thursday. They said Ethiopian soldiers put them in a cave overnight to protect them.
"We saw several burned cars, including one with bullet holes in it," Patrick Dudescu, one of the French tourists said.
The cars of the abducted tourists had been reported destroyed there.
"The site was surrounded by armed men so we didn't get too close," he added.
Afar separatists started a low-level rebellion in the early 1990s against the division of the Afar people between the region's three countries.
The region's low-lying lunar landscape, with salt lakes and volcanoes, is a draw for tourists.
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