South Koreans, Filipinos kidnapped in Nigeria

SEOUL, May 3 (Reuters) Three South Korean and eight Filipino workers have been kidnapped in Nigeria at a power plant construction site, a South Korean foreign ministry official and company officials said today.

A Daewoo Engineering&Construction official confirmed the abductees were their contract workers, but said their condition was not immediately known.

The kidnapping took place near Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta between 0000 and 0100 GMT, officials said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Daewoo officials in the delta as saying the abduction followed a 40-minute gun battle between the unidentified captors and security guards, which probably left scores of people dead or injured.

There has been a wave of violence against the energy industry in the delta, where militancy is fuelled by poverty, lawlessness, corruption and struggles for control of a lucrative oil theft business.

The militants say they want autonomy for the vast wetlands region that pumps all of Nigeria's oil.

In June last year, five South Korean Daewoo gas workers were freed 40 hours after they were abducted in the same area by heavily armed rebels demanding the release of their jailed leader, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

Reuters SYU GC1019