'I was prepared to die' says Japanese Algeria hostage

TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese hostage who narrowly survived the armed attack on an Algerian gas plant said he was sure he would die after seeing two colleagues shot dead in front of him, a report said on Monday.

The unnamed man told colleagues how Islamist gunmen had dragged him from his barricaded room, handcuffed him and executed two hostages standing nearby.

In a chilling account of his escape, published Monday in the Daily Yomiuri newspaper, the hostage told colleagues he had been aboard a bus when it was attacked by a group of heavily-armed Islamists in the Sahara desert early Wednesday.

Seven Japanese are known to have survived the three-day assault, which ended in a bloodbath on Saturday - all of them connected to Japanese plant builder JGC.