Kidnapped Red Cross workers in Philippines are alive

The Red Cross says three of its staffers who have been kidnapped on a restive southern Philippine island are alive.

Anna Nelson, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Manila, said on Saturday the report is based on “reliable information”. She declined to give other details.

Motorcycle-riding gunmen abducted Swiss Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba after they visited a jail on Jolo island, a known stronghold of the Al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf.

Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, says they are well and unharmed.