Fears for couple ‘taken by fanatics’

A COUPLE kidnapped in South Africa allegedly fell into the clutches of an Islamic State cell linked to plots on US diplomats.

Horticulturists Rod and Rachel Saunders, who emigrated from the UK in the 1970s, vanished four days after filming with one of the presenters of BBC Gardeners’ World.

The couple’s bloodspattered Toyota Land Cruiser has been found and fears are growing they have been murdered.

Detectives also discovered £20,000 has been withdrawn from their bank account.

Just days after they vanished, armed police arrested a man and a woman in Vryheid, a town in northern KwaZulu-Natal about 200 miles north of Durban.

Sayfydeen Aslam Del Vecchio, 38, and Fatima Patel, 27, appeared in court accused of kidnapping and robbing the couple. Officers allegedly found IS recruiting material in their hide-out in the affluent hamlet of Ballito.

In 2016, Patel was seized during anti-terror raids aimed at smashing alleged IS plots to attack the US embassy and consulates in South Africa.

Charged with possessing a stun grenade and 20 rounds of ammunition, Patel was released on bail.

“Both she and Del Vecchio had been on our radar for a long time,” a police source said.

Mr Saunders, 73, and his 64-year-old wife, are believed to have left their home in Cape Town on February 5.

The couple linked up with Gardeners’ World presenter Nick Bailey and a BBC crew on February 8.

They were searching for a rare gladiolus plant in the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains.