Gunmen seized a French engineer from outside his home in Baghdad today, beating their screaming victim as they hauled him to their getaway car, neighbours said.
It was the third kidnapping of foreign workers in Iraq in ten days, after a lull in such abductions in recent months.
French and Iraqi officials identified him as Bernard Planche, an employee of a non-governmental organisation who worked at the Rusafa water treatment plant in eastern Baghdad.
In Paris, the French government confirmed Mr Planche's disappearance and said it was working to secure his release.
"All the services of the French government are fully mobilised to ensure his release as quickly as possible," Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin told reporters.
The Frenchman was snatched by seven gunmen in two cars as he prepared to leave his home this morning in the upscale west Baghdad district of Mansour, police quoted witnesses as saying. Small pools of blood were left outside the gates of his house.
One neighbour said the gunmen hit a screaming Planche as they dragged him away, while witnesses looked on helpless. "The whole neighbourhood watched and no one did anything to help him," the man, who declined to be named, said.
Mr Planche's kidnapping follows the abduction of German archaeologist and aid worker Susanne Osthoff on November 25th and that of four Christian peace activists - two from Canada and one each from Britain and the United States - the following day.
The recent spate of kidnappings comes after a drop-off in abductions of Westerners around Baghdad in recent months, as most cut back on all but essential travel around the capital.
The French government has taken strong measures to dissuade its citizens from venturing into Iraq following two kidnappings involving French journalists in 2004 and earlier this year.
Iraqi officials expelled a French freelance reporter from Iraq in June citing threats to her security, a decision the journalist said was taken at the French government's request. France, however, pinned the move on the Iraqi authorities.
Mr De Villepin today reiterated his government's warning to French citizens against travelling to Iraq.
The foreign hostages snatched in the past ten days have all appeared in videos released by groups claiming to be part of the insurgency and shown on Al Jazeera television.
A previously unknown group calling itself "Swords of Truth" has threatened to kill the Christian peace activists unless Iraqi detainees are released by Thursday. The four work for Christian Peacemaker Teams, one of the few aid groups still operating in Iraq.
The group holding Ms Osthoff and her Iraqi driver have said the hostages will die if Germany does not stop cooperating with the US-backed government in Baghdad.