Four Ethiopian athletes have gone missing during a visit to Britain for an international athletics event, officials said.

The athletes, two women and two men, fled their hotel in London on Tuesday and failed to make a connecting flight to Edinburgh ahead of the Falkirk Cup athletics event, the officials said.

"My colleague actually tried to restrain two of them but they ran off," said Dagmawit Amare, an official with the Ethiopian team management, on Tuesday.

"This is such a sad thing to happen for my country and the sport."

Scottish Athletics chief executive Geoff Wightman said the incident had been reported to authorities.

"We invited them, so it's our duty to report it to the authorities," he said.

The missing athletes are said to be women's 200m runner Betelhem Shewatatek, Feleke Bekele (women's 400m hurdles), Hagos Tadesse (men's 400m) and Tirehas Haileselassie (men's 400m hurdles).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090826/wl_uk_afp/ethiopiabritainathletics;_ylt=AqX_LWKnShBOkgr7dUR8YfO96Q8F;_ylu=X3oDMTMwYjQ1dnQ1BGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDA5MDgyNi9ldGhpb3BpYWJyaXRhaW5hdGhsZXRpY3MEcG9zAzI4BHNlYwN5bl9wYWdpbmF0ZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA2V0aGlvcGlhbmF0aA--

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This is pretty common. Happened in Australia during both the Sydney and Commonwealth games.

Siege of Tobruk - One German POW said: "I cannot understand you Australians. In Poland, France, and Belgium, once the tanks got through the soldiers took it for granted that they were beaten. But you are like demons. The tanks break through and your infantry still keep fighting." Rommel wrote of seeing "a batch of some fifty or sixty Australian prisoners ... marched off close behind usimmensely big and powerful men, who without question represented an elite formation of the British Empire, a fact that was also evident in battle."


"As a Internet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."