An Irish priest has been seized by gunmen in the troubled southern Philippines, local police say.
They say six attackers, said to be Islamic militants, took
Father Michael Sinnott, 78, at gunpoint in Pagadian City, on Mindanao island.
They then fled with the priest in a minivan before boarding a boat.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. The Philippine army has been fighting the Abu Sayyaf Islamic militant group in the region.
Father Michael, a priest from the Missionaries of St Columban, was seized by the gunmen at his city residence on Sunday, police say. BBC
"We've alerted all our units as well as the military to be on the lookout and intercept the gunmen," Angelo Sunglao, police chief in western Mindanao region, told reporters.
"We can't speculate yet on who is behind the kidnapping, but the Abu Sayyaf is known to be operating near the area," he added.
Abu Sayyaf is one of the smallest but deadliest militant groups in the largely Roman Catholic Philippines.
Established in the early 1990s, it has kidnapped dozens of foreign aid workers, missionaries and tourists in the south.
It was blamed for the country's most deadly bomb attacks, on a ferry in 2004 that killed more than 100 people.
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