LAGOS, Jan 10: Militants early on Wednesday kidnapped nine South Korean oil workers and one local worker in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria, bringing the total number of foreigners currently held hostage there to 18, officials said.

The latest attack came barely five days after the abduction of five Chinese telecom workers and a month after the kidnapping of three Italians and one Lebanese, all of whom are still being held.

The militants stormed a Daewoo oil facility that was guarded by about 50 soldiers and took the men hostage, Welson Ekiyor, a Bayelsa State government spokesman, told AFP.

The nine Korean workers were taken by the kidnappers from a Daewoo oil facility on the outskirts of Yenagoa, the capital of Bayelsa, Ekiyor added. More than 60 foreign oil workers have been abducted in Africa's largest oil producer over the past year and dozens of Nigerian workers have been killed.

The gang behind the latest attack has not been identified but the spokesman said: This is one abduction too many. We as a government will do everything humanly possible to secure the release of the men and put a stop to the criminal activities of the militants.—AFP