The bodies of several foreign hostages have been found in Yemen.
Seven Germans, including three children and two female nurses, were abducted last week in the Saada province in northern Yemen along with a male British engineer and a woman from South Korea.
There are conflicting reports about how many bodies have been found in Noshour, east of the mountainous Saada area.
One official, who also claimed two children had been found alive, put the number at seven.
Another, at the interior ministry, said later only the women - two Germans and one South Korean - had been found.
The missing nine belong to an international relief group which has worked for 35 years at a hospital in Saada, which borders Saudi Arabia.
In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel said she could not confirm the reported deaths of hostages. ‘We are pressing ahead for examination of this information. For the moment, I cannot give any confirmation,’ she said.
South Korea's foreign ministry said it had no information about deaths but was looking into the reports.
Seoul has confirmed that a 34-year-old South Korean identified only by her family name Eom has been missing in Yemen since last Thursday evening when she joined other members of the relief group for a walk.
A Yemeni official on Sunday said the group was taken hostage by members of the Huthi Zaidi rebel group which has been fighting the government since 2004.
But a rebel spokesman dismissed the accusation as ‘baseless,’ and said the kidnapping took place in an area controlled by security forces in the town of Saada.
