NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali kidnappers and their elderly French hostage escaped into Somalia after a gun battle with Kenyan security forces, which wounded several of the abductors, a Kenyan minister said on Saturday.
"They've crossed the border into Ras Kamboni. There are two aircraft on top of them monitoring their position," Tourism Minister Najib Balala told Reuters.
"We can see that a few of the (kidnappers) are injured. They are 25 km away from the Kenya border," he said, confirming the group were now on land.
The armed gang kidnapped the 66-year old disabled woman from a private house in the Lamu archipelago, northern Kenya, in the early hours of Saturday.
(Reporting by Yara Bayoumy; editing by Richard Lough)
