BEIRUT: Gunmen kidnapped Wednesday a 12-year-old student in front of his home in Wata Moseitbeh, Beirut, security sources told The Daily Star.

The sources said Mohammad Nibal Awada was waiting for his school bus early at 7 a.m. when four unidentified gunmen pulled up in a Nissan Sunny with tinted windows and snatched him.

The kidnappers fired one shot in the air, apparently to cover their escape, and headed toward south Lebanon, the sources said.

The boy’s father, Nibal, is a wealthy businessman who owns two dressmaking factories in Lebanon.

Lebanon has been struck by a series of kidnap-for-ransom cases.

Relatives of Awada contacted Prime Minister Najib Mikati and urged him to double efforts to secure the release of the boy, Information Minister Walid Daouk said following a session of Cabinet.

Mikati, in turn, personally followed up on the case with the relevant security forces, Daouk said.