Belgium seeking info on missing couple

13 August 2007

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Belgium’s embassy in Tehran sought Monday to verify reports that a Belgian couple had gone missing in bandit territory in southeast Iran, the foreign ministry said.

“Our embassy is trying to make contact with the Bam prefecture, to verify the identity and nationality,” of the missing persons, a ministry spokesman told AFP.

According to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency a Belgian married couple, aged 27 and 30, and were travelling in the region in a private car when they went missing.

“Officials are now carrying out actions to recover the two tourists,” Majid Etemadi, the governor of the town of Bam told IRNA.

IRNA said the tourists disappeared on Saturday around the town of Fahraj, situated on the road between Bam and Zahedan, the capital of restive Sistan-Baluchestan province which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The road, which leads to the Pakistan border, is considered highly dangerous because of the presence of armed bandits and drug traffickers. The area has been the scene of around a dozen abductions of foreigners over the past decade.

The Belgian foreign ministry, and its Tehran embassy, warns its nationals against travelling in the region due the poor security conditions.

In particular, the foreign ministry warns of criminal gangs linked to drug-trafficking operating in the area.

Belgian nationals travelling to Iran are also advised to make themselves known to the embassy in Tehran. No Belgian tourists had contacted the embassy about a visit to the region in question, the spokesman in Brussels said.

Subject: Belgian news