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Colombian woman escapes captors
Troops kill two suspected kidnappers but woman's Swedish husband still missing.
Last Modified: 21 May 2007 02:10 GMT
Pena, centre, was taken hostage on May 16.
Her Swedish husband is still missing [AFP]
A Colombian woman held hostage by armed men along with her husband has escaped after a gun battle between her captors and police, a military official says.
 
Diana Patricia Pena is in good health and working with the authorities to help locate her husband, Colonel Carlos Gustavo Leyva, head of the army's 11th brigade, said.
Troops on a search mission shot dead two of the alleged captors on Saturday, he said.
 
Pena escaped and hid in a nearby farm overnight before finding her way to an army post in Tierralta, 350km north of the capital of Bogota, Levya said, giving no further details.
Pena, 36, was kidnapped on May 16 together with her Swedish husband, Roland Erik Larson, 68, at their farm in northern Colombia.
 
Larson is still missing.
 
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), which uses ransom kidnappings to finance its five-decade-old rebellion, were initially suspected of the kidnappings.
 
But Sweden's ambassador in Bogota said she had received no confirmation about who was behind the abduction, and Leyva said the military was also looking at other illegal armed groups.
 
The Farc is believed to be holding hundreds of hostages, including three American military contractors and former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian citizen.
 
Those four are among some 60 high-profile hostages being used to negotiate the release of jailed rebels.
Source:
Agencies
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