Avon sellers kidnapped in Philippines

Eight people selling Avon cosmetics door to door have been kidnapped by suspected guerillas on a remote island in the southern Philippines.

The abductions were the first on Jolo since the US began supporting a Philippines military operation to crush the Abu Sayyaf rebels.

The five women and three men were forced out of their car yesterday in a rural part of the island, which lies about 600 miles south of Manila.

Government troops responded to the kidnapping by shelling Abu Sayyaf positions and launching a hunt for the gang.

They said six of the victims were Jehovah’s Witnesses from Zamboanga, the biggest city in the region.

They said there was no evidence they were trying to promote their religion in the predominantly Muslim area.

The two others were their Muslim guides. Officers found boxes of abandoned Avon cosmetics in the jeep.

Police said the victims’ driver - who was left behind - identified one kidnapper as Muin Maulod Sahiron, a nephew of local Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron.

The Abu Sayyaf has often kidnapped for ransom but has more frequently abducted poor Filipinos to serve as slave labour.

A US missionary couple from Kansas were held for more than a year - the wife escaped after a bungled rescue operation killed her husband.

Most hostages have been released, but more than a dozen have been killed in the past year, some beheaded. The group also has kidnapped women to force them to marry guerrillas.