BEIRUT: Two Lebanese workers were kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria Sunday, Foreign Affairs Minister Adnan Mansour said. The Associated Press reported four had been taken.

They were among a group of foreign workers who were snatched at a Lebanese-owned construction company “Setraco Nigeria” which is a subsidiary of Setraco International Holding group.

According to the National News Agency, the Lebanese Embassy in Nigeria informed the minster that two Lebanese identified as Imad al-Indari and Carlos Abu Aziz.

Mansour said that he gave instructions to the embassy there to make the necessary contacts swiftly to secure the release of the Lebanese.

According to AP, gunmen attacked a camp for a construction company in the rural northern Nigerian area o Jama’re, killing a guard and kidnapping seven foreign workers from Britain, Greece, Italy and Lebanon.

Bauchi state police spokesman Hassan Muhammed told the agency that the gunmen first attacked a local prison, burning two police trucks.

"The gunmen came with explosives, which they used to break some areas," Muhammed said.

Adamu Aliyu, the chairman of the local government area that encompasses Jama're, identified those kidnapped as one British citizen, one Greek, one Italian and four Lebanese.

There are roughly 20,000 Lebanese living in Nigeria who some analysts have said could be sliding into a large-scale civil war.

In May, gunmen in Kaduna state shot and killed a Lebanese and a Nigerian construction worker, while kidnapping another Lebanese employee. - With AP