Nigerian gunmen abduct Chinese oil workers

LAGOS, Jan 25 (Reuters) Nigerian gunmen have abducted two or three Chinese oil workers in the southern delta state of Bayelsa, police said today.

The men were working for the Chinese National Petroleum Company (CNPC) when they were seized by the gunmen who also looted the company's cash office, police said.

The abduction brings to 32 the number of foreign workers being held by armed groups in the remote swamps of the Niger Delta, Africa's oil heartland, where militancy is on the rise.

REUTERS SP PM1539