U.S., British workers seized in Nigeria

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria – Unidentified assailants seized two foreign oil workers Tuesday in the latest kidnapping to hit restive southern Nigeria, police said.

The hostages included one American man, said Rivers State police spokeswoman Irejua Barasua. U.S. Embassy officials were not immediately available for comment.

The other man was a Briton, said a colleague who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The pair worked for a Nigeria-registered oil services company, Pivot Engineering, he said.

The fellow oil-industry worker said he called one of the hostage’s mobile phones and a man with a Nigerian accent immediately rang back from that number saying the two had been taken hostage.

AP