Efforts to free NI hostage

The election workers were taken from a UN vehicle

Efforts are continuing to secure the release of a County Armagh woman kidnapped in Afghanistan.

The family of Annetta Flanigan are gravely concerned for her safety.

She was one of three foreign election workers kidnapped in the Afghanistan capital Kabul on Thursday.

Mrs Flanigan is from Richhill in County Armagh.

The Afghan authorities arrested three people and seized a car believed to have been used in the kidnapping on Friday morning.

'Assistance for elections

But there was no word on the fate of the hostages, who were in the country helping to organise Afghanistan's first direct presidential election earlier this month.

Mrs Flanigan was also providing technical assistance for parliamentary elections due to be held next April.

It is understood she and her husband had planned to return home to Northern Ireland for Christmas.

Mrs Flanigan's mother, Esther, is a member of the Mothers' Union at St Matthew's Church of Ireland in Richhill.

The rector, the Reverend David Coe, said: "Obviously the family is gravely concerned about the situation, and what more can you say?

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Afghanistan

"The family just want time and space to try and come terms with this."

Church of Ireland Primate Robin Eames urged people to pray for the safe release of the hostages "at this time of great worry".

In a statement on Friday, Archbishop Eames added: "I pray that they will all be strengthened and upheld by God's love and presence in their anxiety and time of waiting for news."

Mrs Flanigan, a graduate of Queen's University in Belfast, worked as a solicitor in Portadown, County Armagh.

She has previously worked in Bosnia and Rwanda.

She carries joint British and Irish nationality.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern condemned the kidnapping and called for the immediate and unconditional release of those taken.

Mr Ahern said he was following the situation closely, including through the UN offices on the ground and through the Irish Embassy in Tehran.

'Army of Muslims'

DUP assembly member Paul Berry said he was shocked to learn of the kidnapping.

"This is a very worrying development and I would call upon Tony Blair and the British Government to do all in their power to try and seek the release of the hostages," he said.

The BBC's Andrew North in Kabul says it is unclear if they were targeted because of election links, or for being foreigners.

A group called the Army of Muslims says it is holding them outside Kabul.

"There was indeed a kidnapping. The victims were international staff with the electoral commission here in Kabul," UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told the Associated Press news agency.