A French photographer kidnapped in Afghanistan four months ago fled his captors yesterday and was now safe in the hands of officials from his embassy, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

A second French hostage in Afghanistan was freed by his captors, a spokesman for France’s foreign ministry said, without providing any details.

Twenty-nine-year-old freelance Pierre Borghi had been chained up in a crudely dug hole covered by a trap door but managed to escape and reached a checkpoint manned by government security guards in central Wardak province, an Afghan official said.

Borghi, from Grenoble in southeastern France, was brought to the Interior Ministry’s headquarters in Kabul at about 4.30pm (1200 GMT) and left in the company of French embassy officials less than an hour later, ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

He was in good health, Sediqqi said. The French embassy declined to comment.

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