Bodies of missing Colombian football players found in Venezuela

Oct 25, 2009, 10:14 GMT

Caracas - The bodies of ten young men from a Colombian football team who had been kidnapped during a game in Venezuela were found Saturday in western Venezuela, officials in Caracas said.

An eleventh player, 18 years old, was found still alive and was rushed to hospital.

The players were kidnapped on October 11, in the Venezuelan state of Tachira.

The bodies showed evidence of gunshot wounds. Another five bodies were found in the area, but their identity was not yet clear, according to media reports.

The twelve Colombian players from the Los Maniceros team were kidnapped by a commando of 25 armed men on October 11 during play on an improvised football field.

They were held captive under a bridge. Their bodies were found strewn at various places around the city of Fernando Feo in the province, which borders on Colombia.

The background of the bloodbath is not clear. A spokesman for the regional government of Tachira blamed units of Colombia's guerilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN,) referring to comments by the lone survivor to date.

'According to information which we have from the survivor, we know that armed units of ELN were led into Venezuelan territory by their so-called commander Payaso,' he said.