UKC

Gourdel was a mountain guide from the French Alps and was rock climbing east of Algeria’s capital, Algiers, when he was kidnapped on Sept. 22. Groudel was a tourist in an area popular with French holiday-makers, which has added to the sense of shock.

http://gripped.com/news/kidnapped-french-climber-beheaded-algeria/

In reply to tlm:

Evil bastards

In reply to tlm:

That is f***ing horrible.The poor guy,his family & friends.Sometimes I truly despair.

In reply to tlm:

No words can describe how inhumane and terrible this ongoing killing is. It strikes more deeply when it is someone from a community you identify yourself with

In reply to tlm:

Sad, scary news.

The world is simply no longer a safe place. We have to be far more careful when choosing our destinations and adventures. In fact I believe there are real limitations one where is truly is safe to go these days.

In reply to Blizzard:



It never was. There always were 'no go areas' even in so called civilized countries where there was a definite risk of murder.

I suspect its safer now than it was even a hundred years ago, though.

In reply to GrahamD:

I am not sure I agree with you on that score.

In reply to tlm:

I agree, its just more publicised now than it ever has been throughout history

In reply to GrahamD:



Considerably!

In reply to tlm:

"An area popular with French holiday-makers" is a bit of an overstatement, the tourist industry in Algeria has always lagged far behind Morocco and Tunisia.

I doubt there will be any more tourists there in the near future, which is a shame as it could be a good destination - varied geography and plenty of history.

In reply to GrahamD:


But it's definitely more dangerous than when I was doing most climbing in the early 70s. We went to Afghanistan and N Pakistan, just a small group of naive youngsters and danger from the locals or losing a leg to a anti-personnel mine was inexistant. In the mountains people weren't armed, except for match-locks. AFAIk the situation was the same in N Africa, the Hoggar was popular, no islamists, they didn't exist back them, that all went wobbly from 79 on with the rise of militant islam.

S America was ok, as it is now, but China and Central Asia was more closed so that's an area which has probably improved. As you can imagine there has been a lot in the press about Hervé Gourdel, but the sad fact is that no country can guaranty the safety of it's citizens at present, either at home and even more so abroad in areas where armed groups who sympathise with ISIS exist. The lesson is clear.

In reply to tlm:

Despicable and inhumane. Shockingly cruel.

This isn't "religion"

In reply to Trangia:


No it isn't, it's war and whether we like it or not we are involved.

Apparently he was climbing with a group of Algerian friends, climbers too. They picked him up at the airport and they all drove together to a chalet that belonged to one of them in the mountains. Being with locals he thought he was safe, even though it is a highly dangerous area. The murderers released the Algerians and just took Hervé Gourdel prisoner. His friends are still in detention and the army is looking for his body. Pretty grim.

In reply to Bruce Hooker:

The danger spots were elsewhere in the 70s. Uganda was probably one of them back then.