Oil worker released by militants

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A British oil worker kidnapped by militants in Nigeria has been released by his captors.

The man is believed to be 27-year-old Alan Preston, from Edinburgh, who was seized in Port Harcourt three weeks ago.

The armed group who took him hostage also killed Mr Preston's police guard.

Mr Preston, who works for Adamac Industries, was the seventh Scot to be taken hostage in the Niger Delta region over the past two and a half years.

Kidnappings of oil workers are common in the Niger Delta, where militants say they are fighting for a fairer distribution of Nigeria's oil wealth.

Hundreds of expatriates and many more Nigerian workers have been seized for ransom in the past three years.

Among them were Robin Hughes originally from St Margaret's Bay, near Dover, and Matthew Maguire, from Birkenhead, Merseyside, who were among 27 oil workers kidnapped when their supply vessel was hijacked on 9 September last year.

Mr Hughes was released last Sunday, but Mr Maguire remains as a captive of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend).