FEARS were growing today for the safety of hostage Paul Wells as Indian officials were said to be digging for his body after a second report that he had been murdered.

Police have been searching for graves after being told four Western tourists - including Paul, 25, of Blackburn, - have been killed after being taken hostage in Kashmir last year.

Officers were digging in a village near the town of Anantnag, where a tip indicated that the bodies of the four hostages were buried, government officials said.

But a Foreign Office spokeswoman told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph today that they had received no official information that a dig for bodies had taken place.

She said: "It is very worrying. We are investigating the reports fully but we don't know where they have originated from.

"We continue to make sure the British High Comission in Delhi has our full support."

The latest information came from a militant known as Nazir Mohammed, who said he was with the kidnappers last July.

Mohammed, captured last week near Anantnag, told interrogators he left the abductors, who call themselves Al-Faran, a few months after the kidnapping.

He said he had heard from militants that Al-Faran killed the hostages in December, either on the 13 or 23.

But this conflicts with another report this week where the four hostages were said to have been seen in Anantnag in the New Year. The news is bound to bring added turmoil for Paul's parents, Bob and Dianne, of Feniscowles. They have not been available for comment but the Foreign Office is keeping them regularly updated on events.

The rebel group kidnapped six foreigners last July as they were trekking through mountains 65 miles south of Srinagar in Jammu-Kashmir.

One escaped, and another, Norwegian Hans Christian Ostro, was beheaded.

Still missing with Paul are Keith Mangan, 33, an electrician from Middlesbrough, Donald Hutchings, 41, of Spokane, Washington State, and Dirk Hasert, 26, of Erfurt, Germany.

For several months, the militants have claimed they no longer held the hostages, and have accused Indian authorities of keeping them in custody.

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