Families of victims welcome inquest into Algerian siege

AN INQUEST into the deaths of six Britons, including two men from Fife and Perthshire, murdered by terrorists in a siege in Algeria could take two months to complete.

A total of 40 hostages were killed when Islamist terrorists stormed the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria in January last year.

Carson Bilsland, originally from Bridge of Cally, near Blairgowrie, and Kenny Whiteside, from Glenrothes, were both killed in the siege.

Two months have now been set aside for the hearing, which will take place at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

On January 16 last year, 32 gunmen with links to al Qaida stormed the gas plant, which is situated in a remote part of the desert, and took hundreds of employees hostage.

A three-day stand off ensued and was only brought to a conclusion whenAlgerian forces launched an attack on a convoy carrying both terrorists and their hostages using helicopter gunships and then engaged in a fierce gun battle for control of the plant.

Twenty-nine of the 32 terrorists were killed when troops stormed the plant.

Along with Mr Bilsland and Mr Whiteside, Sebastian John from Norfolk, Stephen Green from Hampshire, and Paul Morgan and Garry Barlow, both from Liverpool, died during the siege.

BP executive Carlos Estrada, who was originally from Colombia but lived in London, was also killed. Fife man Barry Lawson was among the hostages who escaped alive.

Mr Estrada’s family said the inquest would give the relatives of victims “vital answers” about what had happened during the siege.

Picture: AP. Kenny Whiteside, top, and Carson Bilsland were killed in the gas plant siege, along with four other Britons.