A Canadian journalist and an Australian photographer are believed to have been kidnapped in conflict-ridden Somalia after failing to return to their hotel in the capital city Mogadishu, dpa reported.
Hotel officials told the BBC that the pair - identified as Australian Nigel Brennan and Canadian Amanda Lindhout - were due to return to the hotel by midday Saturday but did not show up.
"It is (clear) that they were kidnapped because their schedule was to come back to the hotel before 12 in the afternoon and we don't have their whereabouts," hotel owner Abdifatah Ajos Sanura told the BBC.
Their Somali driver and two guards were also believed to have been kidnapped during a trip to a camp for internally displaced people outside of Mogadishu.
Hundreds of thousands have fled Mogadishu as the government battles Islamist insurgents.
Militants have been waging a guerrilla war since Ethiopian troops helped the government oust the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in late 2006.
Foreign aid workers and journalists have become prime targets for murder and kidnap, particularly since a US airstrike in May killed Aden Hashi Ayro, the leader of insurgent group al-Shabaab.
The interim government has been unable to achieve stability in the Horn of Africa country, which has been plagued by chaos and civil war since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.