Detectives are trying to apprehend a gang who abducted a young man in north Belfast and held him until a sum of money - up to £4,000 - was paid over to the men.
The gang confronted the 18-year-old at about 8pm on Tuesday night in an alleyway off Berwick Road in Ardoyne and bundled him into a car.
Police said the man's mobile phone was taken and one of the assailants used it to phone the man's family to demand money.
The relative was instructed to go to the man's place of work - understood to be a bingo hall in north Belfast - to obtain the cash, which was left to be collected by gang members at Harding Place, off the New Lodge Road, according to the PSNI.
The man was set free, uninjured but shocked at 10.30pm, after the money was picked up by the abductors.
Police appealed for public assistance to trace the gang who are understood not to be paramilitaries.
Sinn Féin policing spokesman Gerry Kelly said anyone with information should give it to the appropriate authorities.