Colombian Farc rebels release last known foreign hostage

Guerrilla group frees 69-year-old Swedish engineer after two years in captivity

Colombian guerrillas today released their last known foreign hostage, a Swedish engineer, after two years in captivity.

Erik Roland Larsson, who is partly paralysed from a suspected stroke, was being treated in hospital today after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) handed him over to the authorities.

Hundreds of Colombian captives, including more than 20 soldiers and police officers, continue to languish in clandestine jungle camps.

Photographs provided by the state security police showed Larsson, who was barefoot and dressed in a green T-shirt and blue trousers, being lifted from a canoe on the banks of a river in a remote rural area.

Officials carried the 69-year-old to an ambulance on a stretcher. He was then taken to hospital in Montería, a city in the north-east.

Larsson is due to be transferred to the capital, Bogotá, and is expected to be flown back to Sweden next week.

"He is in a delicate state of health and, at this moment, is being evaluated by a medical team," the state security agency, DAS, said in a statement.

The Swedish embassy welcomed the news. "For us it's obviously a very happy day," Tommy Stromberg, a diplomat, told the Associated Press.

Stromberg said he did not know whether a ransom had been paid. Swedish police and non-governmental organisations were involved in efforts to secure the release.

Larsson was abducted from his farm, Cielito Lindo, by guerrillas in May 2007, and they demanded $5m (£3.5m) for his release.

The engineer had worked on a hydroelectric project in the Cordoba department before settling in the area with his Colombian companion, Diana Pena.

She was kidnapped with him but escaped during a battle between security forces and guerrillas soon afterwards.

A recent proof of life video showed that Larsson had lost weight and that his right arm, leg and parts of his face were paralysed.

It was not known whether he was released for health reasons or because money had been paid.

Earlier this month, the Colombian defence ministry said Larsson was the last foreign hostage.

Farc, which has been waging a four-decade leftist insurgency, kidnaps for money and political leverage.

The group recently released six political hostages to try to regain the diplomatic initiative.

Under President Alvaro Uribe, Colombia's US-backed military has clawed back territory and picked off Farc commanders, raising doubts about the guerrillas' long-term viability.

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