Gunmen have kidnapped a British ecologist and a Kenyan colleague who were working on a UN-funded water project in southern Somalia.

Eyewitness accounts suggest that the Briton, identified as Murray Watson, was wounded in yesterday’s early morning attack when gunmen opened fire on their car as they drove between the towns of Sakow and Buaale. The other man was identified as Patrick Amukhuma. They were both contractors with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

“Right now we are working around the clock together with UN security, which has its people on the ground in Somalia all over, and we hope that everything is going to be all right,” said Amos Nyaoro, a colleague at Somalia Water and Land Information Management, the FAO-funded project that the pair were working with. Alison Small, an FAO spokeswoman, said that the pair were employed by Genesys International Corporation, a Bangalore-based company. “The company is working in Somalia under contract to the FAO, carrying out an aerial survey with a view to preparing detailed maps that will assist in bringing help to the population affected by regular flooding of the Juba and Shabelle rivers,” she said.

There were no immediate reports of ransom demands. The British High Commission in Nairobi said that it was “urgently investigating” reports of the attack.

Somalia, which has been without a functioning government since the fall of Mohamed Siad Barre’s regime in 1991, has experienced increased violence in recent months. Islamic militants who were ousted by Ethiopian troops in a December 2006 invasion have gradually taken great swaths of territory.

In February a roadside bomb killed three workers for Médecins sans Frontières, forcing the aid group to withdraw all its staff from Somalia.

The Islamists have appeared to gain strength by capturing towns across the south. Nur Hassan Hussein, the transitional federal Government’s new Prime Minister, has sought to negotiate with some of the Islamists, but that has not prevented the highly factionalised insurgents from waging a bloody campaign.

Mr Nyaoro said that the UN was investigating whether the two were the intended targets of the kidnapping because they had so much experience in Somalia and were known to locals. “These are people who are very familiar with the place, and that’s why we don’t want to blow it out of proportion,” he said.

On Monday the Islamists took control of the central Somali town of Bula Burde, killing at least 11 people. More than a million Somali citizens depend on foreign aid. There have been a number of attacks on aid workers in previous months, including kidnappings and land mines that have blown up their vehicles.

Britain has no embassy representation in Somalia, with officials in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, in charge of issues involving UK nationals in the country. The UN says that it has about 100 expatriate staff working in Somalia.

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