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Berlin: Five Germans and five Italians who were part of a 19-member tourist group kidnapped in Egypt and taken by their abductors on a dash through the Sahara Desert have returned to their home countries Tuesday.
The Italian tourists arrived at Turin's Caselle airport, and the Germans and a Romanian woman who lives in southwestern Germany touched down several hours later at Berlin's Tegel airport.
The tourists and their eight Egyptian drivers were rescued by troops in helicopters from a barren wilderness just inside Chad, Egyptian officials have said, but details of the operation were not clear.
The Italians said they had been robbed at gunpoint, but were never physically harmed throughout their 10-day ordeal.
In Germany, the tourists waved to cameras as they exited the plane, but made no comments to the media. In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said the group thanked officials for the intense efforts to secure their release.
"The first days we, I mean us women especially, kept our heads down, with a veil this was our own choice, it seemed the most appropriate behaviour we didn't look for any contact," said one of the Italians, Giovanna Quaglia. "But I must say we were never subjected to physical violence."
The German tourists were identified only as a 56-year-old man and his 60-year-old wife, a 69-year-old woman, and two men aged 37 and 65.
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