Afghan insurgents kidnap female British aid worker

The woman, who has not yet been named, was abducted alongside three Afghan nationals in Kunar province in the north-east of the country, close to the border with Pakistan.

The group are thought to have been travelling in a two-vehicle convoy when they came under attack at around 11am yesterday. Kunar police chief Khalilullah Zaiyi said his officers chased the kidnappers and were engaged in a brief gunfight close to the site of the ambush, before the men escaped.

The attack comes a month after another female British aid worker, Dr Karen Woo, was shot dead in Afghanistan alongside nine of her colleagues.

The woman kidnapped yesterday was working for Development Alternatives Inc (DAI), an American aid contractor with offices all around the world, including one in London. A spokesman for the organisation, one of many large aid companies working in Afghanistan, said the woman was working for them as an "international development professional."

The other people taken hostage are believed to have been her guard, driver and another DAI worker. They p were apparently travelling from the provincial capital Asabad to attend the opening of a canal refurbishment project in the Narang district of Kunar.

The Foreign Office last night launched an urgent investigation into the incident as a major search operation got underway in Afghanistan. Local tribal elders were believed to be assisting .

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We can confirm that a British national is missing in Afghanistan. We are working with other international agencies to urgently investigate these reports."

The incident is the latest violent incident to involve non-military British citizens working in Afghanistan.

Last month British aid worker Dr Woo was murdered only 15 days before she was due to marry her fianc in London. Dr Woo and nine of her colleagues were returning from delivering medical supplies to poor Afghans in remote mountain communities, in an expedition organised by Kabul-based Christian charity the International Assistance Mission.

In July a British private security guard was killed as he fought off an assault on DAI offices in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan. Shaun Sexton, 29, was a former member of the Parachute Regiment.