By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 08:43 EST, 7 March 2013 | UPDATED: 10:53 EST, 8 March 2013 Released: The couple were identified as Andy Wells, the 51-year-old head of the local subsidiary of Exxon Mobil and his wife Caroline A British oil executive and his wife were kidnapped as they drove through a remote area of Egypt. Andy Wells, chairman of ExxonMobil for the country, was driving with his wife Caroline, 48, from their Cairo home towards Sharm el Sheikh, through the increasingly lawless Sinai region. As they stopped at a bureau de change in the town of Ras Sidr, the couple were held by two masked gunmen.
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Andy Wells, 51, and wife Caroline, 48, abducted at bureau de change
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Taken to mountains as police negotiated with Bedouin tribesman
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Released hours later after agreement to free relative held on arms charge
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Latest in number of kidnappings by Bedouin in Sinai area of Egypt
Although many UK tour operators have @placeholder programmes, trips including Cairo are rare.