A 62-year-old British oil engineer is reported to have been kidnapped in the Aceh area of Indonesia.
A spokesman for police in the province said the man was travelling back from a mine site with a driver when a group of armed men ambushed their car.
Police said there were no indication of shots being fired and that the car’s driver was left tied up.
Investigations are ongoing into the incident and so far there have been no demands for a ransom.
The man was working for Indonesian energy company Medco Exploration and Production.
No contact
The British embassy in Jakarta said they were in touch with the local authorities and the man’s family.
Authorities have had no contact with the suspected kidnappers.
Aceh is a resource-rich province in Indonesia that had a history of separatist conflicts and violence, including toward foreigners.
But the conflict ended in a peace deal in 2005, and kidnappings and attacks, particularly of foreign nationals, are unheard of in recent years.
Dr Sajjan Gohel, an expert on international terrorism and the director for international security at the Asia Pacific Foundation think-tank, said hostage taking in Aceh was unusual.
He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “Aceh is a very conservative province, so they are somewhat angry at the foreign presence of companies that may be there.
“But nevertheless no-one would have anticipated this happening in Aceh, it’s more likely that other provinces would have been more susceptible to hostage taking.”
