Hostage Bigley reported killed
 

The Foreign Office is investigating claims a video which appears to show UK hostage Kenneth Bigley being killed has been released by militants in Iraq.
Reuters news agency said a witness had seen the video showing Mr Bigley making a statement before being beheaded.

Mr Bigley, 62, of Liverpool, was taken hostage on 16 September by the Tawhid and Jihad group which beheaded two Americans captured at the same time.

The Foreign Office says it is "urgently investigating" reports of his death.

'Informed sources'

Earlier on Friday afternoon, Abu Dhabi TV said it was told by "informed" sources in Iraq that Mr Bigley had been killed.

Reuters news agency also quoted Falluja insurgent sources as saying the Briton had been killed on Thursday in Latifiya, south-west of Baghdad.

And Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya TV said its sources confirmed the execution of Mr Bigley.


A Foreign Office spokesman said it was "trying urgently to corroborate reports that Kenneth Bigley has been killed but has not yet done so".

The Foreign Office was "in close touch with the family at this difficult time", he added.

Iraqi Interior Ministry officials in Baghdad said they had no information on the report, Reuters said.


Irish passport

Mr Bigley was last seen alive in a video broadcast last week, pleading for Prime Minister Tony Blair to help him.

Mr Bigley's Thai-born wife Sombat, has made several emotional appeals for mercy.

The engineer was captured just weeks before his official retirement when he would have joined her in Thailand.

Mr Bigley's Irish-born mother Lil, 86, has been treated in hospital several times.

A nurse was seen entering her Liverpool home this afternoon as members of his family awaited further news.

Three police officers were outside the family home, with a mass of press photographers lined up directly across the street from the family's Victorian mid-terrace home.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3727344.stm