Foreign Secretary William Hague has accused the terrorists who killed a British national in the Algerian hostage crisis of "cold-blooded murder". Several British workers are still in the gas field complex which was stormed by heavily armed militants on Wednesday and one other hostage has reportedly been killed. An Islamist group claimed it was holding 41 Westerners - including seven Americans - in retaliation for the French military intervention against al Qaida-backed rebels in neighbouring Mali. Mr Hague described the siege as a "dangerous and rapidly developing situation" and has despatched a specialist response team to Algeria to back up Britain's embassy staff. He told the BBC: "This is an absolute tragedy, of course. In this dangerous and rapidly developing situation the next of kin have been informed. "The Government's Cobra emergency system is in full operation. I have spoken to our ambassador in Algeria and despatched a rapid deployment team to Algeria to strengthen our embassy there and help them in their work. "Excuses being used by terrorists and murderers who are involved - there is no excuse for such behaviour, whatever excuse they may claim. "It is absolutely unacceptable, of course. It is, in this case, the cold-blooded murder of people going about their business. So there is no excuse, whether it be connected to Libya, Mali or anywhere else." | 
