Three aid workers have been kidnapped in the Philippines, in an area known as a stronghold for Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda.

The three Red Cross representatives were on the way to the airport on the southern island of Jolo after visiting a local jail when their car was forced to a stop by gunmen on motorbikes.

The kidnappers freed the aid workers' driver and two other Filipinos, but drove off with the workers from Switzerland, Italy and the Philippines.

Jolo is the stronghold of the al-Qaeda linked group Abu Sayyaf, notorious for kidnapping, rape and assassinations in its battle for an independent Islamic state.

Military spokeswoman Lieutenant Estefani Cacho identified the kidnapped workers as Swiss Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipino Jean Lacaba. Lieutenant General Nelson Allaga, the regional commander, said that troops were pursuing the group.

Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross, said: "It is my hope that these people realize that the Red Cross is there to help them. The Red Cross is neutral."

Abu Sayyaf, formed in the early 1990s and funded in part by al-Qaeda, is dedicated to creating a pan-Islamic state across much of South East Asia. Kidnappings on the group have been on the rise in recent months, but their most recent victims have all been released after a ransom has been paid.

In 2002, Abu Sayyaf militants kidnapped nearly two dozen people, including three Americans, from a holiday resort. One was beheaded and another killed during a military rescue operation, prompting the US to station troops on Jolo. The soldiers, however, are barred from combat.

The organisation is one of several militant Islamist organisations in the southern Philippines where Muslims have fought a 30-year insurgency to create a state independent of the predominantly Catholic Philippines.

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