IRAN: Security forces were scouring south-east Iran yesterday for three western tourists kidnapped on a cycling trip, a senior official said.
Iranian sources have said one Irish and two German tourists were seized in Sistan-Baluchestan province on the Afghan -Pakistani border where banditry and drug-smuggling are rife.
"The province's security institutions have started serious efforts to track down the abductors and release the hostages," Mr Gholamreza Javdan, a provincial security chief, was quoted as saying on the state IRNA news agency.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed the identity of the Irishman as Mr Aidan Leahy. He is believed to be in his 30s and resident in the UK.
"We are not in a position to say any more because we have a duty of care," the spokeswoman said.
"We have been in touch with his family and we are offering them consular assistance.
The embassy in Tehran is keeping in touch with the Ministry of the Interior in Iran."
Iranian officials were not immediately available for further comment.
On Monday Iranian government sources said the kidnappers were armed drug-runners who had demanded €5 million for the tourists' release.
Well-armed drug-traffickers use Sistan-Baluchestan as a key crossing-point for bringing opium and heroin into Europe from Afghanistan. It attracts a small number of backpackers, generally crossing overland into Pakistan.
Sharq newspaper reported that the regional heads of Iran's police and military forces held an emergency meeting in Zahedan, Sistan-Baluchestan's capital.
The newspaper also quoted a provincial security official who believed the tourists had fallen into the hands of a notorious bandit called "Shirouk".
The official also told the newspaper that an Iranian guide had probably been snatched along with the Irish and German travellers.
The Irish and German embassies in Tehran declined to comment on the case, but the German Foreign Ministry has set up a crisis team.
Kidnapping of westerners is rare in Iran, which has been trying to promote itself as a tourist destination in recent years.
There was a spate of kidnappings in Iran in 1999 when drug-traffickers seized 10 Europeans in three separate incidents.
The hostages were freed unharmed, and three of the convicted kidnappers were executed at public hangings in 2001.
Rumours that Germany paid ransoms for the release of some of its citizens have led to speculation that German tourists may be seen as lucrative targets for would-be hostage-takers.