Afghan Video Shows Kidnapped French Aid Worker

The Frenchman said he had been held in a small room, blindfolded and chained for eight days.

A French aid worker kidnapped in the Afghan capital this month pleaded for his life as gunmen held assault rifles to his head in a videotape obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

The Frenchman, Dany Egreteau, working for the French aid agency Solidarite Laique, said he had been held in a small room, blindfolded and chained for eight days, suggesting the tape could be some two weeks old.

Egreteau, who was kidnapped on Nov. 3, appeared on the tape with two gun muzzles pointed at either side of his head while the gunmen, who were off camera, could be heard ordering him to keep talking.

"I cannot move, it's a nightmare, please pay this money ... Please do it quickly, it's a nightmare here. I'm totally in the dark, all day and all night and I'm going totally crazy ... I'm not going to be able to sustain this for a long time," Egreteau said in the video.

Taliban insurgents, criminals and armed groups have kidnapped dozens of foreigners in Afghanistan in the past two years, Most have been freed unharmed, but a few have been killed.

On Tuesday, three Turkish citizens were released after they were kidnapped in August.