Oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria

Gunmen have kidnapped three Filipino oil workers in southern Nigeria's petroleum-producing Niger Delta region.

The abductions follow the kidnapping of a German oil worker on Thursday and are the latest in a string of assaults on foreign contractors in the region.

The upsurge in attacks by militants has reduced Nigerian oil production by 25%. Militants demand more local control of the Delta's resources. Kidnappings have also been used to extort money from oil companies and from the government.

The three Filipinos had been working at the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas complex in Bonny.

"A group of gunmen intercepted their car, shot their tyre, fired into the air and took three Filipinos away in a speedboat," a police spokeswoman told Reuters news agency.

The German worker was kidnapped from the nearby city of Port Harcourt on Thursday.