US aid worker kidnapped in Chechnya

A group of armed and masked men have kidnapped an American aid worker in Chechnya.

The American, Kenny Gluck, was kidnapped on Tuesday when a convoy of cars was attacked some twenty kilometres south of the capital, Grozny.

Mr Gluck and three Chechens travelling with him were abducted but another American managed to escape.

No one has admitted carrying out the kidnappings. The two Americans were working for a humanitarian organisation, Action Against Hunger, distributing food to displaced people across the northern Caucasus region.

A Russian military spokesman criticised the Americans for travelling around Chechnya without permission.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service