British And Italian Hostages Killed By His Captors In Northern Nigeria

A British hostage was killed by his captors in Nigeria yesterday when a UK Special Forces rescue operation ended in tragedy.

Chris McManus was executed by gunmen as members of the Special Boat Service and Nigerian soldiers moved in on the Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists’ hideaway Fellow hostage, Italian Franco Lamolinara, was also killed. The pair had been held for ten months.

Christopher McManus

Fears for Mr McManus’s welfare had intensified following the release of a video in August showing the 28-year-old engineer blindfolded alongside three armed men.

One of the terrorists said it would be the ‘last message’ to David Cameron about the hostage.

Yesterday the Prime Minister broke the news of the execution to Mr McManus’s family in a personal phone call before making a public statement in which he appeared emotional.

Further details of the rescue bid were emerging last night, but it remained unknown whether Mr McManus and Mr Lamolinara – a 48-year-old father of two – died before or during the operation.

There were reports the men may have been held in a house in Sokoto, a city in Nigeria’s north-west.

One witness said: ‘The security agencies tried to break into the house but there was resistance. The people inside the house were shooting at them and they returned fire.’

None of the 20 strong British rescue force was injured and Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan said all the terrorists had been arrested.

The rescue was triggered when – after months of searching – the SBS found the heavily protected location where the men were being held.

Mr Cameron said authorities had decided to go ahead with the rescue after receiving ‘credible information about [the men’s] location’.

‘A window of opportunity arose to secure their release. We also had reason to believe that their lives were under imminent and growing danger,’ he insisted.