A Scottish escapee from the Algerian gas field attack paid tribute to his Algerian workmates on Sunday, saying that he and his expat colleagues would be in debt to them “for the rest of our lives”.
Alan Wright hunkered down in an office inside the In Amenas compound along with a group of Algerian and foreign workers from the BP-run gas field, he told Sky News on Sunday.
According to Wright, the attackers believed that the buildings had been emptied but he feared he and the other foreign workers would be captured if their Algerian colleagues surrendered.
“The Algerians could go whenever they want, and you thought, ‘if they (his Algerian colleagues) go, they (the attackers) are going to ask where did you come from and then they’re going to come and search’,” he told Sky News from his home in Portsoy, Scotland.
Instead, his workmates hatched a plan to escape by cutting through a wire fence.
“The national guys had got so excited about wanting to escape, that they just threw me the hat to make me look less expat. They cut the fence, and that was it, you knew, we’re going,” he said.
“I cannot say enough about the guys who were in our building who had the option to surrender and be safe but they decided to stay and help us escape.
“You’ll be in debt to them for the rest of your lives, and the gendarmes as well,” he added.
Wright described how there was little alarm when the power initially shut down, but as soon as someone said they were under attack, “that changed everything.”
He said that the attackers came into the building and tried to draw out any workers by pretending to be members of the security force.
Despite his miraculous escape, Wright’s joy was tempered by uncertainty over the fate of his colleagues.
“These are all my very, very good friends still unaccounted for,” he told Sky.
“We were playing football on Tuesday night together, and now you don’t know who is home and who’s not home. It’s a horrible, horrible feeling.”
Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday that six Britons and one British resident were thought to have been killed in the hostage crisis, which he said was a “stark reminder” of the threat of global terrorism.
Cameron said the threat in north Africa was from “an extremist Islamist violent Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group”, which he compared to militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Scottish escapee forever 'in debt' to Algerian colleagues
