|  Police in Mauritania have begun to comb the area where three Spanish aid workers were kidnapped last night as they were travelling with a convoy of vehicles carrying 20 tonnes of humanitarian aid.
A spokesperson for the charity 'Barcelona-Acciķ Solidāria' has told the press that Spanish police usually based in the embassy at Nuakchot will be joining the search for the three missing Spaniards today.
There is already considerable speculation as to who is responsible for kidnapping Albert Vilalta, Alicia Gámez and Roque Pascual (pictured), who were travelling in the last vehicle of the convoy, amid fear that the Maghreb branch of Al Qaeda could be holding the three Spaniards, but no group has yet claimed responsibility.
Police are using photos of the road taken just minutes before the incident by another aid worker in the convoy to help them identify vehicles that might have been involved in the kidnapping.
All the remaining aid workers who were travelling in the convoy have been taken by representatives of the Spanish embassy to the Mauritanian capital and are said to be OK.
The charity spokesperson also confirmed that nothing else had been taken from the vehicle the three Spanish aid workers were travelling in. The laptop and all the documents they were carrying were left in the vehicle. Although bullet cases were found on the ground next to the vehicle, there were no bullet holes in the vehicle itself. |
