A British aid worker held hostage in Afghanistan for the past fortnight has been killed by her captors during a rescue attempt, foreign secretary William Hague has announced.
Mr Hague said in a statement: "It is with deep sadness that I must confirm that Linda Norgrove, the British aid worker who had been held hostage in eastern Afghanistan since 26 September, was killed at the hands of her captors in the course of a rescue attempt last night (Friday)," Mr Hague said in a statement.
"Working with our allies we received information about where Linda was being held and we decided that, given the danger she was facing, her best chance of safe release was to act on that information," he said.
Ms Norgrove and three colleagues were kidnapped in eastern Kunar province after being ambushed. Police fought a gun battle with the kidnappers near the attack site before the assailants fled.
