Palestinian gunmen kidnapped a Spanish photographer working for the Associated Press news agency in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the AP said.
Citing one of its drivers who witnessed the incident, the AP said photographer Emilio Morenatti (37) was heading out of his apartment to an AP car when four gunmen grabbed him, put him in another vehicle and drove away.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
”We are making searches in the area,” a Palestinian security source said.
The AP said Morenatti, from Jerez, Spain, has been working for the news agency in Jerusalem since 2005.
Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesperson for the Hamas-led government, said: ”Hamas calls on the kidnappers not to harm him and to free him immediately because it [kidnapping] does not serve the Palestinian cause.”
”We stress that these actions are against our culture and against our religion.”
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters in Madrid he had contacted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials over the kidnapping.
”We are doing what we can to free the Spanish photographer as quickly as possible,” Moratinos said.
Previous kidnappings of foreigners have usually ended after a few hours, or at most a few days, of captivity.
Earlier this month, unknown gunmen kidnapped a US student volunteer in the West Bank but released him hours later.
Two journalists working for the US Fox News channel were abducted in the Gaza Strip in August. They were held by militants for two weeks before being freed.
Militants had forced the two journalists at gunpoint during their captivity to say in a videotape that they had converted to Islam. – Reuters