Irish tourist kidnapped in Iran

Armed drug smugglers have kidnapped one Irish and two German tourists who were on a cycling trip and are demanding €5m for their release.

“Two Germans and one Irish tourist have been kidnapped,” said Iranian police Colonel Mahdi Ahmadi.

He did not identify the tourists but said they were kidnapped on the Bam-Zahedan road in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, close to Iran’s border with Pakistan.

“Apparently the tourists were kidnapped as they were cycling to Zahedan,” Ahmadi said.

He gave no further details but said police and security officials were investigating the incident.

The German and Irish embassies in Tehran refused to comment.

Kidnapping of Western tourists is rare in Iran, but Sistan-Baluchestan is known as a major drug smuggling route where drug smugglers resort to extortion.

A few Western tourists were kidnapped in the country in the late 1990s and foreign tourists are usually advised to exercise prudence while visiting south-eastern Iran.