BAIJI, Jan 24: Two German engineers were kidnapped on Tuesday at gunpoint by men posing as soldiers outside an oil refinery in Iraq, the latest foreigners to fall victim to a renewed hostage-taking spree.

The engineers, on short-term contracts in Iraq where they were installing machinery for their German company, were seized as they travelled by car from their lodgings to the nearby high-security refinery compound.

Two Iraqis travelling with them were also abducted.

Iraqi and US forces set up roadblocks and multiplied controls in a bid to rescue the men, who, according to a security official, were bundled into civilian pick-up trucks.

A guard at the refinery, whose access was cordoned off, said the Germans were snatched by seven men, all in army uniform, including two with officer rank.

“They drove them off towards the north of the town,” Mohammad Ahmad said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Berlin had ‘indications’ that two Germans had been kidnapped, but that he could not confirm the abduction.

“We have indications that two Germans may have been kidnapped,” he said. “We will do everything in our power, if it is confirmed that they were kidnapped, to ensure their safe return.”

More than 250 foreigners have been taken hostage in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. A number, including Westerners, have been killed.

Some German nationals are understood to work at the Baiji power station, located some 200 kilometres north of Baghdad, from where a Brazilian engineer was kidnapped a year ago.—AFP