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Manila: Gunmen in the Philippines kidnapped two women workers from a church-funded organisation in the troubled south where Muslim militant groups are active, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.
The gunmen, suspected Muslim rebels, stopped a convoy on Basilan island on Monday and took five people hostage but later freed three of them.
Two female staffers of the Christian Children's Fund, partly funded by Spanish Catholic missionaries, remained captive, said Lieutenant-Colonel Edgard Arevalo, a navy spokesman.
"We've sent troops to look for them and determine what group was behind the kidnapping," Arevalo told reporters in Manila, adding no ransom demand was received by local authorities or by the employers of the kidnap victims.
Arevalo said there were a number of Muslim rebel groups that operate in the area where the kidnapping took place. The small but violent Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf and the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), are both active in the area. Bandits and guns for hire ae also rife in the area.
On Tuesday, some foreign governments expressed concern over continued fighting between government security forces and Muslim separatist guerrillas on the main southern island of Mindanao.
"The European Union is deeply concerned by the escalation of violence in Mindanao," said a statement from the French embassy in Manila, issued on behalf of the European countries.
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