KABUL, Sept 1: A British engineer and his Afghan interpreter were kidnapped when gunmen attacked a convoy in western Afghanistan and killed three police escorts, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

Taliban guerillas said they carried out attack on on Wednesday in the western province of Farah and were holding the Briton, but Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said criminals were responsible, although they might be working for the Taliban.

“They killed three policemen and kidnapped a British engineer working for a road construction company,” Mashal said.

The attack took place on the road between the southwestern city of Kandahar and the western city of Herat, he said.

One of the attackers had been captured but the rest, driving in three vehicles, had escaped into mountains, he said. Later, another of the gunmen’s vehicles was found abandoned, he said.

“Police are chasing them ... right now we are focusing on the safe release of the international employee,” he said.

He declined to identify the British man or the company he was working for but said he was a civilian. No demands had been made for the man’s release, he said.

The British embassy in Kabul was aware of an incident in the west of the country, as a result of which a British national was missing, an embassy spokeswoman said.

“We are urgently seeking details from the Afghan authorities,” she said, adding that next of kin of the missing man had asked that his name not be released.

Mashal said the area where the attack took place was infested with robbers and the kidnappers too were criminals, not militants.—Reuters