Maputo — The wave of kidnappings of citizens of Asian origin continued on Thursday with the abduction of the 12 year old son of a business man in the central Mozambican city of Beira.

According to the Beira daily paper, “Diario de Mocambique”, the boy kidnapped, named Hanupi, is the son of Imirane Mahomed, owner of the hardware company Ferrox. Six armed men seized Hanupi in broad daylight on a Beira street on Thursday morning.

Hanupi was in a van, which the armed gang forced to a standstill, threatening the boy, and the driver, Manuel Baera, with their firearms.

They seized Baera’s mobile phone and handcuffed him to the steering wheel.

Then they dragged Hanupi over to their own vehicle.

Baera told the paper “they pointed guns at me while our car was moving, and I stopped. They told me not to shout, and if I did they would shoot me.

Then they handcuffed me to the wheel. They took my cell phone, put the child in their own car and drove away”.

He described the kidnappers as three black men and three men of mixed race.

He claimed that he was unable to identify the type of car they used or its number plate.

“Diario de Mocambique” notes that the kidnapping occurred a few days after armed men raided a Beira shop, named “Dragao Oriental”, at 10.00, a few metres from a police station. One of the owners was beaten up, and the attackers stole 50,000 meticais (about 1,700 US dollars) from him.

Last Thursday armed thieves attacked workers from the company Uzeir, as they were travelling to a Beira bank to deposit money. In this case the police did detain six men and seized a gun – which is believed to be a police weapon.