British hostage used as bait and then executed during bloody gas plant attack The account emerged yesterday, as rescued hostages and Algerian officials told how members of the Masked Brigade, also known as Witnesses in Blood - a splinter group of al-Qaeda - attacked the gas complex early on Wednesday. Instead of passing through Algeria's relatively well-patrolled deserts, the attackers approached the plant from southern Libya, where there is little central government control and smugglers ply their trade relatively unhindered. Daho Ould Kabila, Algeria's interior minister, said the attackers - 30 men armed with rocket launchers and machineguns - were under the supervision of the Masked Brigade's founder, Moktar Belmoktar, a one-eyed Algerian linked to al-Qaeda who has combined his campaign against the Algerian government with a lucrative smuggling and kidnapping operation across the Sahara. Alive: Alan and Peter At 5.45am on Wednesday, having earlier moved across the border 60 miles from the natural gas plant, the gunmen ambushed two buses taking foreign workers to the airport. A military escort fought off the attackers in an exchange of gunfire that sent bullets flying over the heads of the crouching workers. One Briton and an Algerian, probably a guard, were killed. Neither men has been named. The terrorists then headed to the vast gas complex, made of the workers" living quarters and the refinery itself. The complex was plunged into darkness as the gunmen cut the electricity. Crying "God is great" and firing machineguns, the terrorists burst into one of the plant's dining areas, where dozens of workers were eating breakfast, and began rounding up hostages, separating out the Westerners and binding their wrists. Alive: Steven McFaul One Algerian worker described the terrifying moment the gunmen struck. "An alarm went off, then they made everything go dark after they succeeded in cutting the electricity," he said. All of a sudden there were bursts of fire, explosions. We didn't know what was going on. They took control of the base, and they came into the bedrooms. They were smashing the doors shouting, 'We're only looking for foreigners, you Algerians can go! They gathered up the foreigners and encircled them. They tied them up and put them in a group next to the restaurant. The attackers had accents that seemed to be Libyan and Algerian. I can tell you that those we saw, those who let us go, were not blacks, but Maghrebin [north African] guys; normal-looking. They were extremely well armed, and at ease, aged between 30 and 35 years, carrying bombs. We heard heavy arms fire. The Algerian workers, and other Muslims who could prove their faith by reciting the Koran, were moved to another area. The women among them were apparently released immediately. One of the Algerian workers, named Moussa, said: "They told us, 'We are your brothers. You have telephones; call your families to reassure them." " Amid the confusion, some employees hid under beds, others on rooftops. A few even managed to use their cell phones to ring home with terrifying accounts of what was happening. Alive: Mark Grant Ruben Andrada, 49, a Filipino civil engineer who worked as one of the project management staff for JGC Corp, a Japanese company, sent his text to his wife, Hedelyn, saying there was gunfire near their housing complex at the site. He later told her that he and about 35 others, including seven other Filipinos, had been seized by gunmen and made to wear a "bomb necklace." Mark Cobb, from Corpus Christi, in Texas, managed to take cover in an empty room before making his way out of the plant unharmed. According to his local television station, Mr Cobb finally made contact with a friend on Friday, texting him the simple message: "I'm alive." A Norwegian employee of Statoil narrowly escaped death when the gunman holding a gun to his head was momentarily distracted, giving him the opportunity to flee and reach safety. Alexandre Berceaux, a French catering contractor, hid as best he could. "I stayed hidden for nearly 40 hours in my bedroom," he said. I was under the bed, and I put boards everywhere just in case. I had food, water, I didn't know how long I would be there. Alive: David Murray When the Algerian soldiers, whom I thank, came to get me, I didn't even know it was over, otherwise I would never have opened the door. Others were not so lucky. Mohamed, a 37-year-old nurse at the Tigantourine complex, saw five people killed and their bodies dumped outside an infirmary. Iba El Haza, a driver at the gas plant, confirmed that his captors spoke in different Arabic dialects, including Libyan, Egyptian and Tunisian, as well as English. Garry Barlow, a system supervisor for BP and Statoil, called his wife Lorraine, 52, in Liverpool to say the complex had been taken over by what they thought were "mujahideen." Alive: Garry Barlow According to a family friend, Mr Barlow, a father of two, told her: "I'm sitting here at my desk with Semtex strapped to my chest. The local army have already tried and failed to storm the plant and they've said that if that happens again they are going to kill us all. As the attack on the plant unfolded, several employees tried to put up a fight and a number of Filipino workers who refused to leave their rooms were beaten and dragged out. A middle-aged European, possibly a security guard, was shot in the back in the plant's cafeteria. By now, an Algerian military unit from a nearby base had been alerted and surrounded the complex. A stand-off ensued, until Thursday morning, when the gunmen loaded 35 hostages, most of them foreign, on to seven SUVs, with the apparent intention of using them as human shields. Fearing the kidnappers were attempting to reach either Mali or Libya, the Algerian military decided to send in its attack helicopter gunships. The result was a bloodbath. Mr Andrada, 49, was on one of the vehicles. "When we left the compound, there was shooting all around," he said. Mr Andrada said their vehicle separated from the convoy. We made a sudden left turn and our Land Cruiser fell on the right side, where I was. But he and his fellow hostages managed to escape. Mr Andrada suffered cuts and bruises and was grazed by a bullet on his right elbow. His wife, Edelyn, later said: "They draped a bomb on him, like a necklace. Luckily, the bomb planted in his vehicle failed to explode. The bombs in the other vehicles went off and so people died. It was at this point, amid the fighting raging around them, that Mr Haza and several others seized their opportunity to escape from the compound. "The first Algerian army attack was around 9am on Thursday," he said. We had broken the padlocks [on the door of the room where they were held] and we left. We went straight to the army. Elsewhere, a driver called Brahim made his way to a perimeter fence with a group of Algerians, a Filipino and two Turks who had hidden in their quarters. By chance, a French tourist in the nearby town of In Amenas came across a bedraggled group of hostages who had managed to flee the plant, among them a French nurse. Jo Calmette, 64, from the Herault region, said: "The Algerian technicians on the base took the initiative to cut a grille and, using the cover of nightfall, a group of 20 people escaped, including the Frenchwoman. There was also an American, an Englishman, another Westerner whose nationality I don't know, several Japanese and other Algerian technicians among those who had carried out the escape. The rescued hostages, including Iain Strachan, from Paisley, Stephen McFaul, from Belfast, who escaped with Mr Andrada from the crashed vehicle during the helicopter attack, and Darren Matthews, from Saltburn, Cleveland, were taken to the Alazhar hospital in Algiers for treatment, with some kept in intensive care. Iain Strachan, left, and Darren Matthews One unnamed British BP worker told Algerian television: "We like the Algerian people. We come here, we train them and we feel very sorry that this has happened to your country as well, but we will come back. I feel very strong and proud for the people who built this plant, so we will come back. David Murray, from Liverpool, who had worked at the plant as lead engineer for seven years, managed to scramble away with three colleagues as the fighting raged around them. The men were greeted by soldiers at a checkpoint several miles away. Later, from the safety of a military base, he made contact with his wife Anna, 44, and sons Jonathon, 19 and AJ, 12, in Kirkby, to let them know he was alive and well. Jonathon, who had made a direct request to David Cameron on Twitter during the 48 hours his father was being held, said yesterday: "I cannot put it into words how I felt when I found out he was OK. I tried to stay positive but we had heard nothing except for what was on the news. Dad usually phones all the time when he is over there but we just did not hear anything. I was up all night crying. I was just so relieved when the call came. I cannot put it into words. It was the best news I have ever had. Another of the rescued British hostages, Mark Grant, 28, a project services contracts administrator with BP, sent a text to his wife, Emma, in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire, to tell her he was safe and well. She had begin to fear the worst until she received the text saying: "I'm safe. The fate of other British hostages still thought to be missing, however, remained uncertain last night, including Kenneth Whiteside, 59; Kevin Dobson, an electrical specialist from Newcastle upon Tyne; and Barry Lawson, from St Andrews. Š Additional reporting by Philip Sherwell in Washington; Kim Willsher in Paris; Jasper Copping; Ben Leach; and Claire Duffin