British Workers Feared Kidnapped In Nigeria

Gunmen in northern Nigeria have kidnapped a group of foreign workers including one Briton, according to the local authorities.

The group attacked a construction company camp, killing a guard and then abducting several foreigners, the authorities have said.

Local officials said those kidnapped include workers from Britain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon. Some reports suggested six in total had been taken but others said it was seven.

This would make it the biggest kidnapping yet in a region that is under attack from Islamic extremists.

The kidnapping on Saturday night happened in Jama'are, a town in a rural portion of Bauchi state.

The gunmen attacked a local prison first, burning two police trucks, Bauchi state police spokesman Hassan Muhammed told The Associated Press.

Then they targeted a workers' camp for a construction company called Setraco, which is in the area building a road, Mr Muhammed said.

The gunmen shot dead a guard at the camp before kidnapping the foreign workers, the spokesman said.

Adamu Aliyu, the chairman of the local government area that encompasses Jama'are, identified those kidnapped as one British citizen, one Greek, one Italian and two Lebanese.

Officials originally said that four Lebanese had been taken but this was later corrected. The Italian and Greek foreign ministries have both confirmed that its citizens are being held.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office in Britain said: "We are aware of the reports and are making inquiries with local authorities."

Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north has been under attack by the radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram in the last year and a half.

The country's weak central government has been unable to stop the group's bloody guerrilla campaign of shootings and bombings.

The sect is blamed for killing at least 729 people in 2012 alone, according to an AP count.

Foreigners have been frequently abducted by militant groups and criminal gangs for ransom in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta and have become increasingly targeted in Nigeria's north as the violence has grown.

Sky News Special Correspondent Alex Crawford said: "Nigeria, particularly the north of Nigeria, has got a big problem. It's the scourge of the country and has been for many years now.

"Local Islamist groups called Boko Haram have been largely responsible for carrying out the kidnappings.

"This is one of the militant groups who have operating inside Mali. They are one of five extremist groups who are believed to have been running operations inside Mali and around the Sahel."

Gunmen who authorities say have links to Boko Haram also kidnapped an Italian and a British man last year in northern Kebbi State.

They were later killed during a rescue operation by Nigerian soldiers backed up by British special forces. The sect later denied taking part in that abduction.

Chinese construction workers have also been killed by gunmen around Maiduguri, the northeastern city in Nigeria where Boko Haram first began.

Setraco Nigeria, a construction and civil engineering company, is a subsidiary of Setraco International Holding group.

The Nigerian company, which was established in 1977, is currently working on expanding a major road in the north of the country.

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