DUBAI, January 20 (RIA Novosti) – Algerian troops have found five terrorists alive at a desert gas plant in eastern Algeria at the center of a deadly hostage crisis, private Algerian television station Ennahar said on Sunday.

A search for another three terrorists is ongoing, the report said.

The terrorists staged a deadly attack on a natural gas field near the town of In Amenas on Wednesday seizing hundreds of Algerians and foreigners. By Thursday most hostages were freed when the Algerian special forces launched a rescue operation.

The terrorist group, which was trained in Nigeria, included eleven Tunisians, seven Egyptians, five Malians, three Algerians and also nationals from Canada, Nigeria and Mauritania.

The final assault on Saturday left 23 hostages and 32 militants killed at the gas plant. A total of 685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners were freed by the special forces, AFP reported.

Earlier on Sunday, Algerian bomb squads found another twenty-five bodies inside the gas facility. The bodies might belong to the hostages executed by the militants, Ennahar reported.