LAGOS, Jan 25: Gunmen on Thursday kidnapped several Chinese workers in the southern Nigerian oil state of Bayelsa in the third kidnapping in a week, police and industry sources said.

“I can confirm to you that some Chinese have been abducted at Sagbama. I don't know how many because the details of the incident are still unknown,” Bayelsa State Police Commissioner Hafiz Ringim told AFP.

Industry sources said the latest group of Chinese to be kidnapped might consist of four or five persons and Mr Ringim said they worked for the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation, as did an industry source in Port Harcourt.

Chinese embassy officials were not available for comment.

No party has so far claimed responsibility for the attack. The most prominent separatist group in the region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) told AFP that it was not involved in the incident.

“It was likely carried out for money,” the group's spokesman said in an email.—AFP