A German man has been abducted in the northern Nigerian city Kano.

Police spokesman Magaji Majia confirmed that Edgar Raupach, a construction engineer with the Nigerian construction company Dantata and Sawoe, was kidnapped Thursday morning at around 8 a.m.

Two gunmen drove up in an Opel Vectra vehicle, the spokesman told Deutsche Welle.

"They got out of the car, handcuffed him and put him in the boot and zoomed away," he said. Majia added police were notified fifteen minutes later, quickly mobilized and blocked all the major highways.

Majia said it was not clear yet who was behind the kidnapping.

The German Foreign Ministry merely acknowledged it is looking into "indications that a German citizen has been kidnapped."

Kano, the second-largest city in Nigeria, was rocked by a series of coordinated bomb blasts last week. 178 people died in the attacks. Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group, claimed responsibility for the assault, its deadliest yet in a series over recent months. The group is not, however, known for abducting people.

Fighting between security forces and gunmen has continued sporadically since Friday.

Author: Thomas Mösch /db
Editor: Michael Lawton