菲律賓度假勝地薩馬爾島（Samal）昨晚驚傳持槍綁架案！有2名加拿大遊客、一名挪威籍度假村經理及一名菲律賓女子被槍手持槍擄走，槍手挾持人質後搭船逃往民答那峨島（Mindanao），菲律賓當局出動3艘海軍船隻前往搜索，相關單位則尋找歹徒可能登陸地點。
路透社報導，菲律賓軍方今天表示，昨天晚間，度假勝地薩馬爾島海景度假村（Oceanview resort）遇到歹徒持槍攻擊，2名來自加拿大的遊客里德塞爾（John Ridsel）、豪爾（Robert Hall）、一名挪威籍度假村經理塞基斯塔德（Kjartan Sekkingstad）及一名菲律賓女子被槍手持槍擄走，該名菲籍女子身分據稱是其中一名加拿大遊客的妻子。
軍方表示，事發當時度假村內約有30名外國遊客，「看來外國人是（歹徒的）目標，他們並非隨機擄人。」消息人士指出，槍手操英語及他加祿語（Wikang Tagalog，菲律賓語），當時有2名日本遊客嘗試救人但卻失敗。
消息人士指稱，槍手擄人後就帶著人質搭船逃往民答那峨島，菲律賓軍方隨即派出3艘海軍船隻前往搜索，相關單位則尋找歹徒可能登陸地點。
Gunmen abducted two Canadians, including a former mining company executive, a Filipino woman and the Norwegian manager of an upscale marina and resort complex on a southern Philippine island, sparking an air and sea search by authorities, officials said Tuesday.
Police identified the victims as Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, who was the resort’s marina manager, and Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall.
Ridsdel, 68, is described as semi-retired. He is the former chief operating officer of mining company TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc., a subsidiary of Canada’s TVI Pacific, where he is still a consultant, a company officer said. A LinkedIn page for Ridsel says he has been president of TVI Minerals Processing.
Information from a Bloomberg Business website says Ridsdel used to work for Petro-Canada, domestically at first and later in Pakistan, Burma and Algeria.
Hall is reported to be 50 years old.
The Filipino woman, who has been identified only as Tess, is said to be the wife of one of the abducted Canadians.
Couple escaped
At least 11 men armed with pistols arrived on a motorboat and entered the Holiday Ocean View Samal Resort before midnight Monday on Samal Island off Davao City, military officials said, citing a security video that captured part of the kidnapping.
The gunmen attempted to seize an American and his Japanese companion on one of the yachts docked at the marina, but the couple resisted and escaped by jumping off the boat. The two suffered minor injuries as they struggled to break free from the kidnappers, police said.
Government forces later heard of the abductions and launched a search.
“Unfortunately, the lead time that the abductors had and the darkness of night were able to cover the retreat of the abductors,” military spokesman Col. Restituto Padilla told reporters in Manila.
Government forces on planes and helicopters were scouring the waters and coastal areas in the Davao Gulf, according to Padilla and the police.
Philippines officials said the hostages were taken at gunpoint during a raid late on Monday night on the Oceanview resort on Samal island, near Davao City, the largest city on Mindanao island in the southern Philippines. (Google)
Regional military spokesman Capt. Alberto Caber said earlier that two Japanese tried to intervene in the abductions but it was unclear whether they were actually the American and the Japanese woman on the yacht.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said the federal government is aware of reports that Canadians were kidnapped in the Philippines and is “pursuing all appropriate channels to seek further information.”
The government said it will not comment or release any information “which may compromise ongoing efforts and risk endangering the safety of Canadian citizens abroad.”
Restive area
No group has claimed responsibility. Muslim and communist rebels, al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf militants and criminal syndicates have been active for years in the restive southern region due to weak law enforcement in rural areas despite years of on-and-off government crackdowns.
Communist New People’s Army guerrillas are active in the hinterlands of the Davao region, about 975 kilometres southeast of Manila, where they have denounced foreign mining operations and military counterinsurgency assaults.
Abu Sayyaf militants are notorious for kidnapping foreigners and Filipinos for ransom in the vast Mindanao region. In 2001, Abu Sayyaf militants tried unsuccessfully to seize hostages from the Pearl Farm Beach Resort south of Ocean View during a ransom-kidnapping spree.
The Abu Sayyaf abducted 21 people, mostly European tourists, from a diving resort in neighbouring Malaysia in 2000, then abducted three Americans and 17 Filipinos the following year from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province southwest of Manila.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen are still holding other hostages, including two Malaysians, a Dutch bird watcher kidnapped nearly three years ago, and a town mayor. All are believed to be held by the militants in their jungle bases in southern Sulu province.