Spoorloos duo freed after kidnapping

Dutch TV presenter Derk Bolt and cameraman Eugenio Follender have been released by their kidnappers in Colombia.

Derk Bolt

Bolt and Follender were abducted while filming an episode of the long-running show Spoorloos in Catatumbo, an area near the Venezuelan border, earlier this month.

Their captors, National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, handed them back to Colombian authorities over the weekend.

Follender and Bolt, who has presented the show since 1995, were in Colombia searching for the mother of a local child adopted in the Netherlands a few years ago for an episode of Spoorloos, which traces lost relatives.

KRO-NCRV, which airs the show, said it was “pleased and relieved” that Bolt and Follender were free.

“We are grateful to everyone who has worked to release Derk and Eugenio,” it added in comments quoted by AFP news agency.

“In particular, we thank the foreign ministry. They have really done everything in The Hague and in Colombia in order to bring this about.”

The show has been a permanent fixture on Dutch TV since 1990 and has also been remade in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and the US.