Algeria hostage crisis: 30 Algerian workers reportedly escape captors

Algeria’s state news agency has said 30 local workers escaped from the desert gas facility where scores of hostages are being held by a militant Islamic group.

It did not say how the hostages are thought to have evaded their captors.

The militants claim to have taken 41 people hostage at the In Amenas facility near the border with Libya. The Algerian army has surrounded the site and the militants have threatened to blow up the facility if the army attacks.

Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers due to meet to discuss the crisis in Mali are expected to hold talks on the hostage crisis.