Boy, 11, kidnapped in Niger Delta

An 11-year-old child has been kidnapped in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta.

The boy - the son of a state lawmaker - was abducted on Wednesday from his home in Bayelsa state. He is the third child to be taken in just over a month.

The kidnappers are reportedly demanding a ransom for his safe return equivalent to $150,000 (£74,000).

The abduction came as a gang released a British and a Bulgarian hostage, seized from a river barge on 8 July.

The authorities insisted that no ransom had been paid for the foreign workers, who did not appear to have been harmed.

The kidnap of the 11-year-old in Bayelsa is part of a new trend by gangs of targeting the relatives of prominent figures.

The boy is reported to be the son of parliamentarian Ruby Benjamin, the only female legislator in the 24-member Bayelsa State House of Assembly.

Last month Margaret Hill, the three-year-old daughter of a British expatriate worker, was kidnapped and released after four days.

A gang then snatched the three-year-old son of a prominent town chief from a Mercedes while the toddler was being driven to nursery school but later released him.

Nearly 200 foreigners alone have been abducted this year in the Niger Delta.