An Irishman is among four oil workers kidnapped on Sunday night by armed men in Nigeria. Bryan Fogerty (39), Oughterard, Co Galway, was taken from a bar in the southern city of Port Harcourt, where he was working for US oil services company Halliburton.
Two British men and a Pole are also understood to have been abducted.
The kidnappers, who wore army uniforms, shot sporadically as they stormed the bar in three vehicles, which they then abandoned and escaped in a waiting speedboat after security forces engaged them in a fierce gun battle, police said.
"There was serious shooting in the bar and they left taking away some white men," said bar manager Edith Monigha. "They didn't rob us or ask for anything else, they only wanted the white men."
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of the kidnapping of an Irishman in Nigeria and the Irish Embassy in Abuja was liaising with Nigerian authorities.
Halliburton confirmed that Mr Fogerty had been kidnapped. "This is a difficult development, and we are working diligently to assist the family in any way we can," a spokeswoman said.
Mr Fogerty's brother Justin told The Irish Times his family had been informed of the kidnapping by Halliburton yesterday morning. "We're naturally worried, but we're all trying to focus on what to do. At the moment it's all sketchy. We don't even know who is holding him.
"My father found out late yesterday . . . The only news he had was the company said they had been in touch with the local authorities."
Mr Fogerty had arrived in Nigeria on Saturday morning. An engineer who worked on land rigs, he had been employed by Halliburton for 12 years until he returned to college and completed a masters degree in biochemistry at NUI Galway four years ago.
Mr Fogerty's father Des had worked for Halliburton for 22 years and was himself kidnapped for 17 hours while working in Yemen in the 1990s.
"Halliburton had asked him a few times to go back and he agreed this time," Justin Fogerty said. "He has a fear of flying and didn't really want to go back, but I think he had to after four years in college. He had to get back working."
Nigerian police named one of those seized on Sunday as Briton John Guyan and said he worked for Smith International Inc, a supplier to the oil and gas industry. The company confirmed one of its expatriate workers had been taken hostage.
News of the kidnappings came just after the release of three Filipino gas workers who had been taken hostage 10 days ago.
Norway's ambassador to Nigeria yesterday said negotiators were close to a deal to free four other workers - two Norwegians and two Ukrainians - kidnapped from an oil services ship off the coast of Nigeria last week.
The wave of kidnappings coincides with a surge in militant attacks against the oil industry, which has cut production by 25 per cent in the world's eighth largest exporter since February.