Two German girls aged 3 and 5, who were kidnapped in Yemen last year by suspected al-Qaeda militants, have been freed by security forces from Saudi Arabia in a cross-border raid.

The two sisters, named only as Anna and Lydia, were among a party of nine foreigners seized in June last year during a picnic in Yemen’s mountainous Saada province, known to be a haven for al-Qaeda.

Their parents, Johannes and Sabine, along with their brother Simon, aged 1, were also captured.

The girls are being treated in a Saudi hospital and will be flown home to Germany this week. Their parents are still unaccounted for but a spokesman for the family said today that Simon was probably dead.

“The girls are unharmed and in a stable condition. They will be transferred to Germany as soon as possible,” General Mansour al-Turki, a spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, said.

An unnamed British engineer was also among those kidnapped. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Two German nurses from the party, Anita Stewjab, 25, and Rita Julie, 24, and a South Korean teacher, Eom Young-Son, 34, were found murdered soon after the kidnapping took place. They had been shot and stabbed.

Saudi troops were tipped off by local tribesmen that the two girls had been separated from the other hostages and were being held in a village close to Yemen’s border with the kingdom.

“Our security forces received intelligence that the two little girls were being held very close to the border. It was decided we must do something to save them,” General al-Turki said.

“We have no information at the moment on the rest of the family or the other hostages.”

The Foreign Office said today that it remained “very concerned” for the safety of the British hostage. Sources in Yemen confirmed that negotiations were ongoing to establish the whereabouts of the remaining hostages.

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