950806

Five Americans kidnapped

in Tanzania game reserve

NAIROBI: Five American tourists have been kidnapped at a remote game reserve in Tanzania, Tanzanian and U.S. embassy officials said on Sunday.

They said the five -- two women, two girls and a man -- were kidnapped by thugs armed with two guns and taken to an unknown destination. A sixth American escaped unharmed.

Cable News Network (CNN) and CBS radio quoted a spokesman for the United States' Southern Baptist Convention as saying the five were missionaries and their children. The Convention is based in Richmond, Virginia.

The gang had made no contact since snatching the Americans on Saturday and it was not known whether they wanted a ransom.

A U.S. embassy official told Reuters by telephone from the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam that American diplomats had flown to the kidnap area and "so far, I am afraid, there is no further information to add. We are all still waiting for new developments"

"The details we have are scanty," said the official, who declined to be named.

The embassy issued a statement late on Saturday urging anyone with information about the kidnapping in Mikumi National Park, 250-km (about 175 miles) west of Dar es Salaam, to report to the nearest police station.

Tanzanian officials, also speaking to Reuters in Nairobi by telephone, said they had launched a manhunt for the kidnappers.

Neither the Tanzanian officials nor the embassy would confirm the identities of the missing Americans.

Banditry is occasionally reported in Tanzanian game parks. But it is rare for the thugs to snatch tourists, with robbery the usual motive, tour leaders in the East African nation say.-Reuter