Kabul, Aug 2: An Indian national and two others working for international food company Sodexo in Afghanistan were kidnapped and killed by gunmen here on Thursday.

"An Indian, a Malaysian and a Macedonian citizen were abducted and killed. We have found their bodies," a spokesman for Kabul's police chief said. The Indian national is said to be 39, the Malaysian 64 and the Macedonian 37, according to the BBC.

Investigators said that the trio, believed to be working as cooks for Sodexo, were taken from their Toyota Corolla car on their way to the airport. Their bodies were found later in the Musashi district of Kabul province, reported Afghanistan Times newspaper.

Police were treating it as "a terrorist incident", the BBC reported citing an Afghan government official.

"They were shot dead and their bodies were found inside a car," said Nusrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry. No group has claimed responsibility for the incident.

Kidnapping by militants or criminal gangs seeking a ransom has been rife in Afghanistan in recent years. Locals are most often the targets, but foreigners have also been abducted.



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Vienna (AP): Police in eastern Austria say a 39-year-old suspect has been arrested after rat poison turned up in some HiPP baby food jars on supermarket shelves in central Europe.

HiPP, which recalled some of its baby food jars in Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic after the case came to light last month, said in a statement Saturday it was “greatly relieved” by the arrest, and would provide further updates as verified details come in.

The Burgenland State Criminal Police Office, under the direction of prosecutors, said a probe was launched after poison turned up in a baby food jar purchased at a supermarket in the city of Eisenstadt on April 18.

It said the suspect was being questioned, and that no further details would be immediately provided. The Burgenland public prosecutor's office has announced an investigation into suspected “intentional endangerment of the public.”

The Austrian Press Agency reported that an expert report on the toxicity of the poison was pending. A total of five tampered baby food jars were seized before they could be consumed, APA reported.

Authorities said previously they believe the tampering occurred in 190-gram (6.7-ounce) jars of baby food made with carrots and potatoes for 5-month-olds that were sold from SPAR supermarkets in Austria.

HiPP responded by recalling all of its baby food jars sold at SPAR supermarkets — which include SPAR, EUROSPAR, INTERSPAR and Maximarkt stores — in Austria as a precaution. Vendors in Slovakia and the Czech Republic also removed all of the brand's baby jars from sale.

The company said the recall was not due to any product or quality defect on its part, and said the jars left its facility in “perfect condition.”

Police said a customer at the time of the discovery had reported that a jar appeared to have been tampered with, but no one had consumed the baby food.