Dubai police stormed the hideout of a group of captors who kidnapped a Sudanese trader and demanded $400,000 or they would kill him. All of them were arrested and the man was freed unscathed after five days in captivity.

Omar Abdullah had been snatched off by the kidnappers, who had taken him to an unknown location in Dubai, locked him up, beat him and threatened to kill him unless he gives them $400,000 (Dh1.46 million).

Quoted by the Arabic language daily ‘Emarat Al Youm’, Abdullah said he had lived on pieces of bread and some water for five days and that he had lost hope of getting out alive because he did not have that sum. He said the unidentified captors seized the money he had in his pocket and a Rolex watch before threatening to slash his neck unless he pays ransom.“They then asked him to provide them with his wife’s phone number in Sudan… they then told her to transfer the sum to another Arab country and warned her not to inform police in the UAE or her husband would be killed,” the paper said.

It quoted Abdullah as saying he later started to lose hope of staying alive as his wife would not able to raise that sum.“On the fifth day, I heard a deafening sound and the apartment’s door was smashed open… a group of plainclothes men stormed into the flat, seized the captors and freed me,” he said.“I was very delighted as I realized from their style that they are police men…they then took me to hospital for examination and contacted my family in Sudan.”