Seventy-nine Colombian police officers taken hostage by area residents demanding help to build roads for their town, freed peacefully

Colombo (News 1st) - Seventy-nine Colombian police officers and several oil company workers who had been taken hostage for more than a day by area residents near an oil exploration facility in the Caqueta Province were freed on Friday.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro earlier appealed to the International Red Cross to negotiate the release of the police officers.

One police officer and an oil company worker were killed during the unrest in which the area residents had been demanding that the Emerald Energy company invest in building roads in the nearby town of San Vicente del Caguan.