Aid workers 'probably kidnapped' in Georgia

A prosecutor in Georgia says the authorities have launched a kidnap inquiry after three Red Cross workers went missing near the border with Chechnya.

The prosecutor for the Akhmeta region Igor Kurashvilli told the French news agency AFP that he believed the three had been abducted.

Their car was found abandoned in a gorge on Saturday, after the Red Cross mission in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, had failed to establish radio contact with them.

The three aid workers -- two European women and their Georgian driver -- had set off from Tbilisi on Thursday to visit the Pankisi gorge, where several thousand Chechen refugees are settled.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service