A UN election worker holding dual Irish and British nationality is among three foreigners seized in Afghanistan today.
Afghan police stand guard next to a vehicle belonging to the UN, from which three foreign workers were kidnapped
She has been named as Ms Annetta Flanigan, a solicitor from Richhill, Co Armagh.
Ms Flanigan and her Spanish husband were providing technical assistance for parliamentary elections due to be held next April. But because of the security threat her movements, particularly after dark, were heavily restricted and she travelled around in four-wheel trucks.
It is understood Ms Flanigan had been in Afghanistan for some time, and was aware of potential risks. She has previously worked in Bosnia and Rwanda. The couple had planned to return home to Northern Ireland for Christmas.
The three UN workers were taken at gunpoint in Kabul this morning, sparking fears among fellow voluntary workers of Iraq-style atrocities.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, condemned Ms Flanigan's kidnapping. "I condemn unreservedly this kidnapping and call for the immediate and unconditional release of those taken," he said. "We are following the situation closely, including through the UN offices on the ground and through our accredited embassy in Tehran."
Government sources and election officials said the three, who were helping to organise Afghanistan's presidential election, were snatched from a UN car by seven men near Karteh Parwan, a relatively prosperous area of the city close to the Intercontinental Hotel.
In Manila, the Philippine foreign affairs office said Mr Angelito Nayan, a foreign service officer seconded to the UN electoral body, had been taken captive.
"The department has informed Angelito's family of the incident and joins them and the rest of the Filipino people in prayer for the success of the efforts to secure the safe release of Angelito and his co-UN workers," a spokesman said.
The third hostage is understood to be a woman from Kosovo.
Although the chief suspects were the Taliban, which a US-led coalition helped overthrow in November 2001, a spokesman for the Islamic group said he had no knowledge of the incident.
But Mullah Ishaq Manzoor, commander of a breakaway Taliban faction known as the Jaish-e-Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), claimed his forces had carried out the abduction. His claims could not be verified.
Afghan and international peacekeepers began a huge manhunt immediately after news of the kidnapping broke.
Although foreigners have frequently been targeted since the Taliban were ousted, the kidnappings are believed to be the first of foreigners in Afghanistan and follow a series of kidnappings and bloody beheadings by insurgents in Iraq.
After a period of calm during the election, an American woman and Afghan child were killed last Saturday by a suicide bomber in a busy shopping street in the centre of the capital.
The kidnappings come the same day that the United Nations-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body - for whom the three foreigners worked - announced that it had finished counting votes. Although the results are not yet official, incumbent Mr Hamid Karzai easily won with more than 55 per cent of the ballot.