TWO leading Chechen rebels have been arrested in connection with the murder of four engineers, including a Hereford man.

The rebels were arrested last week by Russian special forces and are being questioned by Russian authorities about the killings, according to reports.

The arrests come three years after Peter Kennedy and three colleagues were abducted and beheaded while working in the Chechen capital, Grozny. They were installing a mobile phone system.

"We are urgently checking these reports and are in touch with the families," said a Foreign Office spokesman.

"We cannot say anything more and do not have any more information."

Mr Kennedy, aged 46, from Hereford, Darren Hickey, 27, from Thames Ditton, Surrey, Rudi Petschi, 42, of Cullompton, Devon, and New Zealander Stan Shaw, 58, were kidnapped on Saturday, October 3, 1998, while working for Surrey-based Granger Telecom.

Their severed heads were found by the roadside on Tuesday, December 8, and their bodies found later in the village of Chernorechiye, on the outskirts of the capital.

Police said they were killed after a rescue attempt went wrong.

Last night it was reported that Ruslan Akhmadov, a Chechen field commander, and Badrudin Murtazayev, a top aide to warlord Shamil Basayev, were arrested last Wednesday in Baku, the capital of neighbouring Azerbaijan.

They were picked up by Russian special forces and handed over to the authorities, according to Orudzh Zalov, the deputy minister of Azerbaijan's internal affairs.

Hereford MP Paul Keetch today gave the news a guarded welcome.

"It is not the first time that Russian authorities have said this, but the fact that they are still trying to apprehend the terrorists involved is good news in itself," he said.

Mr Keetch said he would stay in touch with the Foreign Office and if necessary, ask for a minister to be called to the House of Commons to make a statement.