Left wing rebels have kidnapped 27 people on a weekend fishing trip at a Pacific Ocean beach in a jungle region of northern Colombia, the authorities say.
Armed with automatic rifles and wearing camouflage uniforms, the National Liberation Army (ELN) fighters initially stopped a group of 80 people from the city of Cali who had gone for the weekend of fishing in Choco Province.
They interrogated their prisoners before deciding who was worth keeping and let the rest go, officials and witnesses said.
"A group of ELN kidnapped the tourists. They made them get on board boats and they made off with them," said a senior Choco Province official.
There was no indication that any foreigners were among those kidnapped. Nor was it clear whether the incident took place on Saturday or Sunday.
The army and police said they were looking for the tourists, but Choco is largely covered by thick jungle, which makes any search difficult.