A Dutch journalist and camera man who were kidnapped in northern Colombia earlier this month were released by their captors on Saturday.

TV presenter Derk Bolt and cameraman Eugenio Follender were trying to trace the mother of someone adopted by a Dutch couple when they disappeared in the northern region of Catatumbo, close to the border with Venezuela.

The two were held by guerilla movement ELN, one of dozens of armed militias active in the region. According to Dutch media reports, no ransom was paid for the two men.

Bolt told a Colombian radio programme on Saturday that both he and Follender were fine given the circumstances. On the third day of their kidnapping, they had to walk for 14 hours deeper into the jungle to avoid the army, he said.

A spokesman for broadcaster KRO-NCRV said the two men will be reunited with their families as soon as possible and given all the time that they need to recover.

Bolt, 62, has worked for the show Spoorloos (vanished, or without a trace), which tracks down missing friends and relatives, since 1991. The programme takes him all over the world.