Gunmen abducted two Canadian tourists a Norwegian employee and a Filipina from a luxury resort island in the conflict-wracked southern Philippines sparking an air and sea search by authorities officials said Tuesday. Other foreigners narrowly escaped they said.
At least 11 men armed with pistols arrived on a motorboat and entered the Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort before midnight Monday on Samal Island off Davao City military officials said citing a security video that captured part of the kidnapping.
The gunmen attempted to seize an American and his Japanese companion on one of the yachts docked at the marina but the couple resisted and escaped by jumping off the boat. The two suffered minor injuries as they struggled to break free from the kidnappers police said.
Government forces later heard of the abductions and launched a search. ‘Unfortunately the lead time that the abductors had and the darkness of night were able to cover the retreat of the abductors’ military spokesman Col. Restituto Padilla told reporters in Manila.
Government forces on planes and helicopters were scouring the waters and coastal areas in the Davao Gulf according to Padilla and the police.
Police identified the victims as Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad who was the resort’s marina manager and Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall. The Filipino woman was only identified as Tess.
Ridsdel is the former chief operating officer of mining company TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc. a subsidiary of Canada’s TVI Pacific where he is still a consultant a company officer said.
Regional military spokesman Capt. Alberto Caber said earlier that two Japanese tried to intervene in the abductions but it was unclear whether they were actually the American and the Japanese woman on the yacht.
No group has claimed responsibility.
Communist New People’s Army guerrillas are active in the hinterlands of the Davao region about 975 km southeast of Manila where they have denounced foreign mining operations and military counterinsurgency assaults.
Police said armed men sailed two motorboats into a marina on Samal island just before midnight on Monday and seized the four from aboard yachts apparently knowing exactly who they wanted to abduct police said.
‘They appeared to target the foreigners. They went straight for the yachts’ Superintendent Antonio Rivera a local police spokesman told AFP.
He said a Japanese couple was also nearly abducted but the pair fought back while some of the more than two dozen guests jumped into the water to escape.
Law enforcement boats and helicopters were scouring the waters around the island on Tuesday to try to stop the kidnappers from leaving the area according to Rivera but they appeared to have escaped.
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