Charity boss snatched in Dagestan

MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- A Dutch national working for the medical aid agency Medecins sans Frontieres has been kidnapped at gunpoint in the southern Russian region of Dagestan.

Police in the wild region, which borders separatist Chechnya and where kidnappings have been commonplace in recent years, said Argan Erkel was seized by three armed men in the regional capital of Makhachkala late on Monday night.

Erkel, who Dutch diplomats said had been in the Caucasus republic for about a year and headed the Swiss section of MSF there, was driving home after visiting a work colleague when he was abducted, police said.

Diplomats said his driver was forced to the car floor and Erkel was bundled into another car, which sped off.

Kidnappings for ransom have become commonplace in Dagestan on the Caspian Sea where law and order has broken down under the impact of the violence in secessionist Chechnya on its western border.

Foreigners and foreign organisations are a particularly target.

Last September Scottish football team Glasgow Rangers refused to go to Dagestan to play a local team Anzhi Makhachkala in a European competition because of fears players might be abducted.

The game was eventually played on a neutral ground.

Reuters contributed to this report.