WORKERS who were caught up in a terrorist raid on a desert gas facility which cost the lives of two Scots and many other hostages are to tell their stories for the first time in a documentary that examines the timeline of the tragedy.

Former employees of the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria believe the raid, which ended with the deaths of 40 workers and 30 militants, was set up with the help of inside information.

Carson Bilsland, 46, of Bridge of Cally, Perthshire, and Kenneth Whiteside, 59 of Glenrothes, Fife, died when the facility was stormed by al Qaeda in January this year.

The plant was quickly overrun and many workers were held hostage until the Algerian army stormed the base. Survivors told how they were fitted with explosive necklaces and bound hand and foot.

They have called for a full inquiry by BP into the circumstances behind the attack and the belief it may have been triggered by an employee on the site.

Nick Hitch, the British BP project general manager at the site, said: "Forty people is a horrendous loss of life ... to think that their loss would not even merit a proper inquiry is very distressing."

The In Amenas gas plant is run as a joint venture between the Algerian state oil company, Britain's BP and Norway's Statoil. Statoil is holding an inquiry to learn lessons on how to improve security and emergency preparedness with the findings due on September 15.

This World: Terror in the Desert transmits tonight on BBC Two at 9.15pm.