French hostages home from Syria

The freed journalists were met by President Hollande and Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (right) as well as their families and colleagues

Four French journalists have arrived back in France after their release from 10 months of captivity in Syria.

Edouard Elias, Didier Francois, Nicolas Henin and Pierre Torres flew in from Turkey on a French Air Force plane.

They had been found, blindfolded and handcuffed, by Turkish soldiers in a no-man's land separating Turkey and Syria late on Friday.

The jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has been accused of kidnapping them.

The men landed at the Evreux military base north-west of Paris before being taken by helicopter to a base south of the capital to be met by their families, colleagues and President Francois Hollande.

'Discreet work'

The four men went missing in two separate incidents last June.

Mr Francois, a veteran war correspondent working for Europe 1 radio, and Mr Elias, a photographer, were abducted in early June on their way to Aleppo.

Mr Henin, who was working for Le Point magazine, and Mr Torres, reporting for French-German television channel Arte, were taken later that month near Raqqa.

Negotiations with their kidnappers had been going on for several weeks but it is not known if anything was offered to them in return for freeing the men, the BBC's Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said their release "was the result of long, difficult, precise and necessarily discreet work".

The journalists were found abandoned in Turkey's south-east Sanliurfa province.

Mr Francois said he was "very happy to be free" as the group spoke briefly to press at a police station in the Turkish town of Akcakale near the Syrian border on Saturday.

"We thank the Turkish authorities because they really helped us. And it's very nice to see the sky, to be able to walk, to be able to speak freely. I'm really happy," Mr Francois added.

Syria has become one of the most dangerous places for journalists.

More than 60 have been killed in the country since the beginning of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad three years ago.