Three foreigners and Filipina abducted from luxury Philippine resort

Gunmen have kidnapped two Canadian tourists, a Norwegian employee and a Filipina from a luxury resort island in the southern Philippines.

A man walks inside the compound of Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort, on Samal island in southern Philippines on September 22, 2015, a day after unidentified gunmen abducted a Norwegian resort manager, Show more

MANILA // Gunmen have kidnapped four people including foreigners from a luxury resort island in the southern Philippines, police said on Tuesday.

Authorities said two Canadian tourists, a Norwegian employee and a Filipina were abducted just before midnight on Monday.

The suspects drove two motorboats into a marina on Samal island and seized the four from yachts, said police spokesman Antonio Rivera.

Law enforcement vessels and helicopters were scouring the waters around the island on Tuesday to try to stop the kidnappers from leaving the area, according to Mr Rivera.

“They appeared to target the foreigners. They went straight for the yachts,” Mr Rivera said.

“[But] we still don’t have anything. We’re blank. No group has taken responsibility and there is no demand for ransom.”

A police report identified the Canadian tourists as John Ridsdel, 68, and Robert Hall, 50. The Norwegian, who was working at the marina, was identified as Kjartan Sekkinstad, 56.

The Filipina, 40, was identified only as Tess, and is a companion of one of the foreign tourists, Mr Rivera said.

A Japanese couple was nearly abducted but they fought back, he said.

A woman working at the Holiday Ocean View resort, which operates the marina, confirmed the incident, but declined to comment further.

The Canadian and Norwegian embassies in Manila did not comment.

A Norwegian foreign ministry spokeswoman in Oslo, Lothe Salvesen, said the government was investigating the reports of the abductions.

Samal island, a short boat ride from the southern commercial centre of Davao on Mindanao, is famed for white sand beaches and dive spots, with resorts there charging up to US$500 (Dh1,836) a night.

The area, about 800 kilometres south-east of Manila, is a popular stop for foreign tourists who sail around the nation’s many tropical islands.

But the Philippines’ southern region has endured decades of conflict, with Muslim rebels waging a separatist conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Parts of Mindanao are also home to more extremist militants, most notably Abu Sayyaf. They engage in frequent kidnappings of Filipinos as well as foreigners in often successful efforts to extort ransoms.

Abu Sayyaf is a group of several hundred men founded in the 90s that has withstood US-backed military operations to extinguish it.

In the most recent kidnapping of foreigners, Abu Sayyaf gunmen seized a German couple in April last year while they were sailing off Palawan.

The couple was released six months later, with the Abu Sayyaf claiming it had received all of the 250 million pesos (Dh19.7m) it demanded in ransom.

The Abu Sayyaf is currently holding nine hostages, including four foreigners, on Jolo island in Mindanao’s south-west, a local military spokesman said on Tuesday.

* Agence France-Presse