By DPA
Kabul : A German woman was kidnapped by four gunmen in Kabul Saturday, the Interior Ministry confirmed, while the radical Islamist Taliban group denied any involvement.
The confirmation came after security sources had said the victim was a German woman who was an employee of an aid organisation.
Police told DPA that the vehicle in which the woman was taken away was last seen driving westwards. Roadblocks had been set up and police were calling in a helicopter for their search.
Reliable sources told DPA that the kidnapped woman, who was working with a Christian aid organisation, was pregnant.
According to Afghan security forces sources, the woman was abducted by four armed men while having lunch in BBQ Tonight Cafe, a restaurant in the western part of Kabul city.
The police in the area was alerted of the abduction and opened fire at a speeding vehicle, a police official who is in charge of the area told DPA, adding that the bullet missed the car and instead hit a taxi and killed its driver.
A secret service officer, who requested anonymity, told DPA that “criminal” gangs were suspected in the kidnapping.
The kidnappers and their driver drove off with the woman in a blue Toyota Corolla, a very common make of car in Afghanistan, the sources said.
A German man, who had been dining with the woman at the time of the abduction, briefed the Germany embassy in Kabul on the incident.
A senior police official said that the police built a “security belt” in the area and “an intensive search was ongoing”. He also said that NATO forces assisted the search by sending a helicopter to the area.
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabeehullah Mujahid told DPA by telephone that his group’s fighters in the capital had told him they were not involved in the kidnapping of the woman.