Afghans search for kidnapped German aid worker

KABUL, Aug 19 (Reuters) Afghan police continued their search today for a female German aid worker who was kidnapped at gun point in Kabul.

The interior ministry said the abductors were not Taliban guerrillas who have seized more than 30 people, many of them foreigners, in several parts of the country in recent weeks.

It said the culprits could be members of a criminal gang, but added that their motive was not known.

The woman was having lunch with her husband at a restaurant in the southwestern part of the city yesterday when two gunmen seized her. Her kidnapping is the first of a Westerner in the Afghan capital for more than two years.

Suspected criminal gangs have abducted a number of Westerners in Kabul in the past, but have released them unharmed after a period of custody and following apparent payment of ransom.

Crime has jumped in recent years in some areas of Afghanistan, where weapons are abundant. The kidnapping of Afghans usually does not draw much Western media attention.

REUTERS JT BST1031