Somali gunmen kidnapped five people, including two foreign journalists, according to police and eyewitnesses.

The two journalists, an Australian man and Canadian woman, had been staying at the Shamo Hotel and were scheduled to visit a refugee camp at Elasha, 17 kilometers (10 miles) south of Mogadishu, Ahmed Ali Salad, a worker at the hotel, said by telephone today. He said he knew only their first names, Nigel and Amanda. A Somali translator and two drivers working with them are also missing, he added.

They were kidnapped by unidentified armed men, who escaped in a car, Sadeek Ahmed Anole, a shopkeeper at Elasha, said, without giving more details.

The Canadian is Amanda Lindhout, 26, a freelance journalist, and she had been working with a freelance photographer named Nigel Brennan, according to information on her profile on Facebook, Jesse Johnston, a reporter with Calgary-based Radio CHQR, who knows Lindhout, said in a telephone interview.

Lindhout had been on a tour through Africa to put together freelance reports for a French television network and had hoped to sell the material to Canadian broadcasters as well, the Calgary Herald said, citing a Global National TV interview with Lindhout's father, John, and a recent e-mail from her to the Canadian broadcaster.

Second Deadliest

Somalia was the second-most deadly place in the world for journalists last year, behind Iraq, the Vienna-based International Press Institute said in May. Eight journalists were killed in Somalia during clashes between government troops and Islamic militants while the total number of deaths dropped 7 percent from 100 journalists killed in 2006, the deadliest year.

Source: AP

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