Unidentified gunmen kidnapped on Monday a Lebanese engineer in southern Nigeria's oil hub of Port Harcourt, the Lebanese authorities said.

According to a government source, the Lebanese government was informed by the Nigerian police that a Lebanese man was abducted in Nigeria late morning.

The source failed to give the name of the abducted man and why he was seized.

In the past three years, Nigeria has seen a spate of kidnappings both of local and foreign oil workers and of relatives of prominent politicians, often by criminal gangs seeking a ransom.