Iraqi relatives of an 11-year-old boy scream out his name at the scene of a suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad, 13 July 2005 (AP)
GAZA (Reuters) – An Austrian and a British national were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources and a British official said on Wednesday.
Details were sketchy but security sources said the two foreigners, both employed as advisers on water treatment, had been held since around midnight (2100 GMT) by a family locked in a dispute with Palestinian authorities.
The sources said Palestinian officials had made contact with the kidnappers and were trying to secure the release of the captives, who were believed to be in a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
"A British and an Austrian national have been kidnapped in Gaza," said Karen Kaufman, a spokeswoman at the British embassy in Tel Aviv.
A British diplomat in Jerusalem said "consulate staff in Jerusalem and Gaza are liaising with the Palestinians" on their whereabouts.
Palestinian security services have been struggling to control a wave of lawlessness in Gaza that has challenged President Mahmoud Abbas.