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Bisheer Estefanos, a farmer from the Upper Egyptian governorate of Minya, said he recognised the faces of his brothers, Bishoy and Samuel, among the men. All we can do is pray to God for help, he said. Their mother is tired of crying.

Mina Thabet, a researcher with the Cairo-based Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, described the shock filtering through the families on Monday.

I cannot begin to tell you how devastated they were as they recognised their sons, he said. They have no idea where they are or what their fate will be.

A spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry confirmed that 20 Egyptians had been abducted in two separate incidents in Libya.

On January 3rd, Christian activists in Egypt had reported thirteen of their countrymen kidnapped in the Libyan town of Sirte, and that seven others had been kidnapped a week earlier.

In late December, an Egyptian Coptic couple and their daughter were found dead in the town, well-known before the 2011 civil war which led to the current fragmentation of the country as the birthplace and stronghold of Muammar Gaddafi, the long-time dictator.

It is now in the hands of Islamist militias including Ansar al-Sharia, which the UN added to its terror list last month over links to al-Qaida and for running Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant training camps.

As the United Nations prepares the ground for Libyan peace talks this week, the oil-rich nation remains deeply divided, split between an internationally-recognised government in the far east and Islamists who control Tripoli in the west.

The head of Libya's UN-recognised government has pleaded for more help from the international community, warning that the country could become a dangerous haven for jihadists on Europe's doorstep.

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Isil group in Libya claims mass kidnap of Christians