A SCOTS victim of a terrorist siege at an Algerian gas plant tried to headbutt one of the assailants in a desperate attempt to get free, an inquest has heard.

Scots workers Carson Bilsland and Kenneth Whiteside were among the 40 hostages killed by al Qaeda-linked Islamists after a four-day stand-off in ­January 2013.

They were among six Britons and a UK-based Colombian who died.

Opening the inquest into their deaths at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, assistant ­coroner for West Sussex Nicholas Hilliard, QC, said friends and family had been left "devastated and bereft".

The court heard that during the attack Mr Whiteside had offered resistance, headbutting one of two terrorists who approached him before he was overpowered and handcuffed.

Once the plant had been overrun, hostages were grouped together with explosives attached to them. They were "encouraged" to make phone calls or send texts or messages relaying the terrorists' demand that 100 Jihadi prisoners be released in northern Mali, the court heard.

Relatives of the "wholly innocent" Britons killed during the siege told the inquest of their grief and anger and how their pain does not diminish with time.

Mr Bilsland and Mr Whiteside, Sebastian John from the East Midlands; Stephen Green from Hampshire; Paul Morgan and Garry Barlow, both from Liverpool; and Carlos Estrada, originally from Colombia but who lived in London, were killed while working at the BP-run plant.

Pictures of the victims were shown on a screen as family and friends spoke about their lives and the impact of their deaths.

Mr Bilsland's younger brother Christopher said the inspection engineer had criticised security at the In Amenas facility in the month before his death.

The court heard Mr Bilsland, who was 46 and living in Perthshire when he was killed, wrote: "The job is fine but security is not good and not safe compared to other places I've worked."

Mr Bilsland said that in his opinion "monetary gain had been valued over human life".

"We want to know if In Amenas could have been prevented and if the necessary steps were in place," he added.

The relatives of health and safety executive Mr Green, who was from Fleet in Hampshire and 47 when he was killed, said their lives had been turned upside down. His father David said: "Stephen's death has been very hard for us. He had a lot of happiness to look forward to.

"I feel both grief and anger - grief that my son was refused a happy future and anger against those responsible. They are not forgiven or understood."

Judge Hilliard told the inquest: "Each was wholly innocent of events which unfolded when a group of heavily armed went into the In Amenas gas facility. 40 ­innocent people lost their lives, such was the scale of events.

"Each and every death is a wholly separate tragedy and leaves family and friends devastated and bereft."

Mr John, a 26-year-old civil ­engineer whose UK home was in Nottingham when he died, was singled out by assistant coroner for West Sussex, judge Nicholas Hilliard, QC, for his bravery.

Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent James Stokley told the inquest that the civil engineer had sent emails with pictures of the terrorists to friends and family while he was held hostage.