Swiss Hostage Kills Guard, Escapes Abu Sayyaf Captivity in Philippines

A Swiss man who was held captive by Islamist radicals in the Philippines has escaped from captivity after two years of being a hostage.

The Daily Mail reports that the man is named Lorenzo Vinciguerra, who was working as a wildlife photographer at the time of his kidnapping. The 49-year-old and a Dutchman named Ewold Horn were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf extremist group as they bird watched in Tawi Tawi province in Feb. 2012.

Vinciguerra was able to escape as Philippine security forces closed in on the Abu Sayyaf territory where he was being held. As the security forces and militants exchanged fire, Vinciguerra attacked the guard who was watching him and Horn.

After a violent struggle with the guard in which Vinciguerra's face was cut by the guard's machete, Vinciguerra disarmed the guard, grabbed the machete, and cut the guard's throat, according to the Mail.

Vinciguerra urged Horn to flee with him into the jungle, but said that Horn was too sick and ill to tag along with him. Five members of Abu Sayyaf were killed and seven wounded in the firefight that provided Vinciguerra's opportunity to escape.

The Mail says that Vinciguerra will return home to Switzerland as soon as he recovers and is able to travel. He is currently emaciated and heavily bearded, bearing no resemblance to the images taken before his kidnapping and two year ordeal.

Abu Sayyaf seeks to establish an independent state ruled by Islamic jurisprudence in the Philippines' south, where much of the population in Muslim, rather than the dominant Roman Catholic religion typically associated with the Philippines.