Gunmen seize US oil workers in Nigeria

The four men were on a vessel off the oil-rich southern coast which was attacked late Tuesday by gunmen on six small boats, an industry source said. Nigerian military personnel fought the attackers but could not stop the abductions.

The attack came shortly after three oil pipelines were blown up in the Niger Delta.

A US diplomat said three Americans were definitely among those seized and the nationality of the fourth was being checked with a possibility he may be Canadian.

Femi Odumabo, a spokesman for Chevron, the oil US company for whom the attacked vessel was subcontracted, told AFP the four seized men were all US nationals.

A military spokesman said four Americans were taken hostage at a location known as Okam in Olero in southern Delta State.

"Some navy ratings were wounded during a gun duel with the attackers," the spokesman, a major, who asked not to be named, told AFP by telephone from his base in the port city of Warri.

He said security agents were intensifying efforts to track down the militants.

"We are yet to identify the group responsible for this attack. But I can assure you that everything is being done to track them down," he added.

The seized men work for Global Industries. The company's vessel was some 10 kilometres off the Nigerian coast at the time of the attack.