SANAA (ANS) -- Six Christian hostages, among them three children, in Yemen are alive. More than six months ago a German Christian family of five and a British engineer were abducted in the North of the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Rashad al-Alaimi has confirmed reports that the German family of five and a British engineer are in the hands of Shiite Houthi rebels. The Germans were forced to care for wounded fighters, he said in the capital Sanaa.

The German foreign office would neither confirm nor deny the information, according to the German evangelical news agency “idea”. The crisis task force was still working hard to find a solution.

The German Evangelical Alliance welcomed the news. If the family was forced to care for their kidnappers then they were fulfilling Jesus’ commandment to “love thy neighbor”, said Alliance chairman Juergen Werth. The Alliance promises to pray in a special way for the hostages during the upcoming “week of prayer”, January 10 - 17.

Johannes and Sabine Hentschel (both 37) and their children Lydia (5), Anna (3) and Simon (1) as well as a British engineer were kidnapped in mid-June during an outing near Saada. They were with two German bible school students and a South Korean teacher. They were found murdered on June 12. The nine Christians had been working at the Al Jumhuri hospital in Saada.

Relatives of the East German family reacted with caution to the news from Yemen. The reports were still unconfirmed, as brother in law Rev. Reinhard Poetschke told idea. Hopes of a reunion with the hostages were rising, however. He keeps in constant touch with the foreign office in Berlin.

Recently German media reports told of a video showing the three children. They appeared to be exhausted. The grandparents and other relatives are still in a state of anxiousness.

In the last 15 years at least 200 foreigners have been kidnapped in Yemen. In most cases, they were set free after ransom payments.

It is not the first time that Muslim extremists have murdered hospital workers in Yemen. Two men killed three US-citizens at a Baptist hospital in Jibla, December 30, 2002. Another American was wounded. The culprits were later convicted and sentenced to death.

Yemen is one of the strictest Islamic countries. 99 percent of the 21 million inhabitants are Muslims. Small groups of Christians gather in secret.