The Namibian authorities say they will do everything in their power to apprehend the attackers who shot dead three French tourists in an ambush near the border with Angola.

Namibian Information Minister Ben Amathila said the incident was being treated very seriously. A murder investigation is already under way.

The independent newspaper, The Namibian, disclosed that the three deceased children, aged 18, 15 and 10, were shot at close range in the heads and other parts of their bodies.

Their parents Briggite and Claude Bodoin, were seriously injured in Monday's attack, by gunmen in uniforms, in a game park in the Caprivi Strip, 50km east of Bagani.

They were airlifted to the capital, Windhoek for medical treatment and are said by the hospital to be in a stable condition.

The security forces have blamed rebels of the Unita movement in Angola.

"This is definitely a Unita ambush," said Namibian Defence Force chief of staff Major-General Martin Shalli.

But a Unita representative in Nambia blamed the attack on "undisciplined" Angolan Government soldiers.

Foreign Office warning

Two aid workers were also injured in a separate attack in the same area.

The UK Foreign Office named one of the two as Syma Jamil, 25, of Glasgow, who is in hospital with leg injuries.

She had just returned from a holiday in Zimbabwe with 12 fellow aid workers from the Danish charity Development Assistance People to People.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Officials from the British consul in Windhoek will be visiting her and offering every assistance."

Foreign Office officials changed their advice to travellers, warning them to steer clear of the Caprivi strip, less than a week ago, on 29 December.

The French Embassy in Windhoek has so far refused to comment on the incident.

The incidents are the latest in a series of attacks on civilians which have been reported from the region recently, as Angola's war against Unita rebels has spilt into Namibia.

Civilians abducted

At the weekend, suspected Unita rebels attacked civilians near Bagani, also in western Caprivi, The Namibian reported.

The newspaper said eight people were wounded - four seriously - in the attack with grenades and assault rifles, and 20 Namibians were abducted.

The attackers planted anti-personnel mines and landmines on their way back to Angola.

Last month Angolan Government forces reported successes in driving Unita out of south of the country, which had previously been a rebel stronghold.

The government says it has secured 1,250km (750 miles) of the frontier, and has taken the former Unita base of Jamba in the extreme south-east of Angola.

Since then, fears of Unita incursions into Namibia have prompted the Angolan army to send its troops across the border in an attempt to contain the rebels inside Angola, with Namibia's agreement.

This has not been universally welcomed.

"The worst predictions about the effect of an over hasty Namibian involvement in the Angolan civil war has materialised, but much faster than expected and with worse repercussions," the Die Republikein newspaper said in an editorial on Wednesday.