Baseball players "abducted"

TAIWANESE Government authorities yesterday ordered an investigation into the alleged involvement of organised crime in Taiwan's professional baseball scene after gangsters reportedly kidnapped and threatened several players for losing games.

The inquiries came after press reports that gangsters allegedly held up four players of the Taipei based Elephant team on Friday as punishment for losing a game earlier that day in Taichung, central Taiwan.

The gangsters reportedly claimed the players' bad performance resulted in them losing a large amount of money.

The reports said one of the players suffered head injuries after being beaten up, though the Elephant team members said they knew nothing about the incident.

But at Sunday's game in Hsinchu hundreds of armed police escorted the players to the stadium and stood guard throughout the game. The team also returned to Taipei under police guard.