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Church envoy Terry Waite has been freed by the Islamic extremists who kidnapped him in Beirut in 1987.

Mr Waite, the envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, successfully negotiated the release of several Westerners held in Beirut before he was also taken captive.

He was released with an American academic, Thomas Sutherland who was seized in 1985.

Their captors, Islamic Jihad, broke the news in a brief note to an international news agency in the Lebanese capital.

Terry Waite was the last British captive in Lebanon following the release of journalist John McCarthy in August and 77-year-old Jackie Mann in September.

At a press conference in Damascus, Syria, he told reporters the kidnappers had promised other Western hostages would be released soon.

Mr Waite said his captors had told him they would free the remaining three American hostages - Joseph Cicippio, Alan Steen and Terry Anderson - by the end of the month.

His captors had apologised for kidnapping him and admitted hostage taking served no useful purpose, Mr Waite added.

Thomas Sutherland told the conference they had seen Terry Anderson - the longest-held hostage - just before their release.

Mr Sutherland said: ''We left Terry Anderson about three or four hours ago in Lebanon and he is no longer chained to the wall, thank God, but he is still in a room that has very little fresh air and no daylight whatsoever."

The release of Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland means there are now five Western hostages left in Beirut - three Americans and two Germans.

After the release of Mr Waite and Mr Sutherland were confirmed bells rang out at St Bride's Church, in Fleet Street, London, wherevigilshave been held on behalf of Mr Waite and other hostages.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, said he was "delighted" at the news.

''The prayers of so many people have been answered today and we thank God for news of his release,'' Dr Carey said.  

The shooting happened at a jungle airstrip

Most of the dead - members of the People's Temple Christian Church - had consumed a soft drink laced with cyanide andsedatives.

However, the body of the People's Temple charismatic leader, Jim Jones, was said to have a bullet wound in the right temple, believed to be self-inflicted.

The deaths are being linked to the earlier killings of five people, including US Congressman Leo Ryan, on a nearby airstrip.

Mr Ryan had led a fact-finding mission to the church's jungle settlement - Jonestown - after allegations by relatives in the US of human rights abuses.

Last year Jim Jones and most of the 1,000 members of the People's Temple moved to Guyana from San Francisco after an investigation began into the church for tax evasion.

People who had left the organisation told the authorities of brutal beatings, murders and a mass suicide plan but were not believed.

In spite of the tax evasion allegations, Jim Jones was still widely respected for setting up a racially-mixed church which helped the disadvantaged.

Leo Ryan's delegation arrived in Jonestown on 14 November and spent three days interviewing residents.

They left hurriedly earlier on Saturday after an attempt on Mr Ryan's life, taking with them about 20 People's Temple members who wished to leave.

Delegation members told police as they were boarding planes at the airstrip a truckload of Jim Jones' guards arrived and began to shoot.

When the gunmen left five people were dead: Congressman Ryan, a reporter and cameraman from NBC, a newspaper photographer and one "defector" from the People's Temple.

A producer for NBC News, Bob Flick, survived the attack.

Mr Flick said: "Every time someone fell down wounded they would walk over and shoot them in the head with a shotgun."