BAGHDAD, June 25: Gunmen abducted 16 employees of a government institute north of Baghdad on Sunday in the second mass kidnapping in the area in a week, police said.

Police said the victims, all employees of the state-run Technology Research Institute in Taji, had been transporting furniture from Baghdad when their convoy was stopped by gunmen.

Large-scale abductions of Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians have been a feature of sectarian violence in the past couple of years.

Several have resulted in massacres, where those abducted have later been gunned down by the road.

On Wednesday, dozens of workers at a state-run industrial complex in Taji were abducted as they were being ferried home in a fleet of buses just north of Baghdad.

Police and the industry minister have offered different figures for the number seized.—Reuters