French man abducted in Kabul

Gunmen in Afghanistan have kidnapped a French aid worker in the capital, Kabul, police say.

An Afghan driver who tried to stop the abduction was killed, police said.

Officials told Reuters news agency the aid worker was walking in the west of the city with another Frenchman when gunmen in a Toyota saloon seized him.

The incident comes less than 10 days after a Briton and South African were killed in Kabul and two weeks after a British aid worker was also killed.

Correspondents say the latest incident will add to the growing sense of unease among foreign workers in the city.

"A man... who tried to stop the abductors was shot and killed as he tried to scuffle with them," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashari told AFP news agency.

The dead man's uncle told AFP that his nephew, Malik, 26, was a driver for a provincial intelligence department.

"My nephew tried to stop them abducting the foreigners," said the uncle, Ghulam Hazrat.

"He grabbed the gun of one of the kidnappers. The other shot him dead with five bullets. At this time one of the foreigners ran away and they put the other in the car, kicking him badly."

Mr Hazrat said that armed men were waiting for the two foreigners in a car and grabbed them before his nephew intervened.

Other witnesses confirmed the escape of the second foreigner in the Baharistan area of the city.

"One of the foreigners tripped and the other continued to run," Hajatullah - who lives in the area - told AFP.

"The two abductors arrived as the foreigner fell to the ground. A man stopped his car and tried to take the gun from one of the abductors.

"The second abductor opened fire and killed the man trying to help. The two forced the foreigner into the waiting car and disappeared."

The BBC's Ian Pannell in Kabul says that there is no indication yet as to what the motive might be of the kidnappers.