‘I strangled the Italian aid worker’, claims kidnapper

A MAN claiming to have kidnapped an Italian aid worker in Afghanistan told Reuters yesterday he had killed her, but a government spokesperson said she was still alive.

Clementina Cantoni, 32, who works for the CARE International aid agency, was snatched on Monday when four gunmen stopped her vehicle on a central Kabul street and bundled her into a white Toyota car.

Timoor Shah, who has claimed in several conversations with media to be holding Mr Cantoni, said he had killed her after President Hamid Karzai’s government refused to accept his demands.