Gunmen abduct 2 Americans, 1 Pinoy in Zamboanga City

UPDATED 3:15 p.m. - Around 14 armed men kidnapped in Zamboanga City early Tuesday three people, including a naturalized American woman and her 14-year-old son, police said. According to a Reuters report, the gunmen stormed a beach house on Tictabon island, near the southern port city of Zamboanga, and took the three victims. City police chief Edwin de Ocampo told reporters 14 armed men in two boats arrived around 3 a.m. Tuesday and overpowered unarmed guards. They took Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann, 50, her son Kevin Eric, and a nephew, Romnick Jackaria, 19. "We're still tracking down the gunmen and find out where they took their captives," de Ocampo said, adding the woman's husband, a German national, has been notified about the abduction. In an earlier interview on radio dzBB, De Ocampo said, "Ongoing ang hot pursuit operation ng kapulisan at military, ang Tictabon malapit lang din sa Basilan." The Lunsmanns are from Virginia and were on vacation with some relatives on the island. They were due to return to Virginia this week after a two-week vacation in the Philippines, De Ocampo said. The German husband was abroad at the time of the incident, De Ocampo added. No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction. A number of Muslim rebel groups are operating in the area where the kidnapping took place, De Ocampo noted. The small but violent Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf and the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), are both active in the area. - VVP, GMA News