Briton 'Feared Killed' By Nigeria Islamists

A Nigerian Islamist group claims it has killed seven foreign hostages - reportedly including a Briton - who were abducted from a construction site last month.

They were taken from the compound of Setraco, a Lebanese construction company, in the town of Jama'are in Bauchi state on February 7.

The al Qaeda-linked Ansaru group, believed to be an offshoot of the larger Boko Haram, is said to be behind the abductions.

Nigerian authorities said they had no information to confirm the claims.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "We are aware of reports of the death of a British national in Nigeria and are urgently investigating."

The abducted workers were also thought to include four Lebanese people, an Italian and a Greek citizen.

A statement released on an Islamist website by Ansaru was accompanied by screen shots of a video purporting to show the dead hostages.

One showed a man with a gun standing above several figures lying on the ground.

The abduction of the hostages involved the largest number of foreigners seized in the mostly Muslim north of Nigeria since the Islamist insurgency there intensified two years ago.

The attack saw gunmen first assault a local prison and burn police trucks, authorities said.

Then the attackers blew up a back fence at the construction company's compound and took over, killing a guard in the process, witnesses and police said.

The gunmen appeared to be organised and knew who they wanted to target, leaving the Nigerian household staff members at the residence unharmed, while the foreigners were quickly abducted, a witness said.

In January 2013, Ansaru declared itself a splinter group independent from Boko Haram, the north's main terrorist group, analysts say.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege", has launched a guerrilla campaign of bombings and shootings across Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north. It is blamed for at least 792 killings last year.