At least 29 foreign tourists have vanished in the Sahara in little more than six weeks, the German police say. The disappearance of a first group went unreported for several weeks, and since then the total has been growing at irregular intervals as one party after another has gone missing in the sparsely populated south of Algeria.
Despite searches with everything from camels to helicopters carrying heat detection equipment, investigators are still no closer to knowing whether the tourists are victims of misfortune or something more sinister.
Last week an abandoned vehicle was found near the entrance to a network of tunnels and caves in mountains near the Libyan border. But the area is used by smugglers, and there is no evidence to connect the find with the tourists.
The missing include 16 Germans, at least eight Austrians, four Swiss, and a Dutch national. – Guardian Unlimited Â