At least 6 foreign workers kidnapped in Nigeria

PanARMENIAN.Net - At least six construction workers, some of them foreigners, have been kidnapped by gunmen in northern Nigeria, officials say, according to BBC News.

The police chief in Bauchi state told AFP news agency six staff were seized, two of them expatriates, working for Lebanese-owned firm Setraco. A security guard was reportedly killed.

No-one has admitted the abductions but the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, has staged a series of attacks in northern Nigeria.

According to an Associated Press report, as many as seven foreign workers were seized. One local official told AP the workers were from the UK, Italy, Greece and Lebanon.

An Italian foreign ministry spokesman told Reuters news agency that an Italian was among the workers who had been taken.

However, a UK foreign office spokesman could not confirm the abduction of a British national and said inquiries were being made about the incident.

Bauchi police commissioner Mohammed Ladan told AFP that the attackers had initially targeted a prison and police station in the rural town of Jamaare, some 125 miles (200km) north of the state capital, Bauchi.

They then moved on to a camp belonging to Setraco, killing a guard and seizing the workers. Setraco is currently expanding a major road in the area.

The state capital has itself been attacked several times by Boko Haram, which wants to impose Sharia across Nigeria.