(CNN)  -- Austrian officials are seeking to secure the release of two Austrian nationals who were kidnapped by an al Qaeda group while vacationing in North Africa ahead of a midnight Sunday deadline. Reinhard and Christine Lenz, right, the parents of kidnapped Austrian Andrea Kloiber. "There are efforts in all areas, unrelenting efforts to secure the earliest possible release of our citizens," Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal told CNN. The team of high-ranking government officials met Sunday morning and planned to work throughout the day, he said. Wolfgang Ebner, 51, and Andrea Kloiber, 44, were last heard from on February 18 while on a vacation in southern Tunisia, foreign ministry spokesman Martin Gaertner said.
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Officials battling a midnight deadline to secure release of kidnapped Austrians
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Wolfgang Ebner, 51, and Andrea Kloiber, 44, captured on holiday in Tunisia
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Al Qaeda contacted Austrian government to seek release of five prisoners
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