Rwandan rebels have kidnapped up to 14 foreign tourists and an unknown number of Ugandans from a national park in south-western Uganda where they were tracking rare mountain gorillas, officials said yesterday.
One news agency said three people, one a tourist, died in the attacks on camp sites.
Six of the abducted tourists were British and three were Americans, Ugandan officials said. The United States said a total of 13 foreigners had been kidnapped, while Britain put the figure at 14.
Twelve tourists who escaped from the rebels were flown back to the Ugandan capital, Kampala yesterday.
The armed gang of ethnic Hutu rebels from neighbouring Rwanda attacked three groups of foreign tourists on Sunday night and Monday morning in their campsites in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, witnesses said.
"Three Americans, 10 other foreigners and an unknown number of Ugandan nationals were taken captive by the band which identified themselves as Rwandan Hutus," a US State Department spokesman, Mr James Foley, said.
In London, a foreign office spokesman said: "We can confirm there are six Britons among the 14 abducted including one dual UK-New Zealand national. The British high commissioner is in close touch with the Uganda authorities.
"He saw the minister of state for foreign affairs this afternoon who is also the member of parliament for the region concerned. He was assured of the full co-operation of the Uganda authorities."
An employee of the African Pearl Safari tour company, which caters mainly to American and British tourists, said the gunmen attacked its camp in the park and burned down the company's property, forcing its staff and guests to flee into the dense brush.
"The information we have is that seven have escaped from captivity, and we may get more as time goes by," said the employee, who would not give his name. "Our people in the camp are scared."
One of the tourists who escaped, Ms Linda Adams from Alamo, California, said in Kampala that rebels armed with submachine guns attacked her campsite at 6.45 a.m. and forced the tourists to leave with them up a mountain path. While walking up the path, "I pretended I couldn't breathe, and the guide who was with us told their general. . . I had an asthma attack," she said.
She stopped and let others in the group pass by. When the rebel leader was out of sight, "I dived into the bush and ran back the way we had come."
The Congo based rebels attacked the Buhoma camping site on the northern edge of the Bwindi National Park, which is the main starting point for seeing rare mountain gorillas. An estimated 320 gorillas remain in the park along the border mountain slopes.
Radio contact between Buhoma and conservationists in Kampala was lost after the attack, in which the rebels burned several vehicles.