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All was quiet at the hotel this afternoon, however, with no obvious sign of police activity outside the building, where guests were able to come and go as normal.

A hotel source said that the kidnappers entered quietly at about 2.30am on Sunday. Dressed in civilian clothes, they politely told the receptionist that they worked for the police. “They asked what room the Western man was in,” the source said.

One of the kidnappers ordered the other four to go upstairs to the room. He then followed. The two victims were led quietly outside and driven away. “The whole operation took about ten minutes,” the source said.

Police officers in charge of security at hotels often dress in civilian clothes so the gang did not arouse suspicion with their attire. “We all believed that they were genuine police,” the source added.

Other witnesses said that the gang numbered ten, with one version of events suggesting that the men had visited the hotel earlier in the day to request a list of guests. Returning later, armed and masked, they stormed the building before leading out the journalist and his interpreter. The two hostages had only checked in the previous day.

The kidnapped Briton is a photojournalist with experience of covering conflicts around the world. He was one of only a few freelance photographers in Baghdad to record its fall in early 2003.

He has worked for publications including The Sunday Telegraph, The New York Times and The Financial Times.

Speaking today, his wife said: “It is still early days. We are just praying for him to be safe.”

A CBS News spokeswoman confirmed that the broadcaster was attempting to locate two of its staff but would not confirm their identities. “All efforts are under way to find them and until we learn more details, CBS News requests that others do not speculate on the identities of those involved,” the spokeswoman said.

The Foreign Office in London said that it was investigating. A spokeswoman said: “We are aware of reports of a Western national missing in Basra and we are urgently looking into it.”

The kidnappings were condemned by the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s organisation. “We ask the abductors to release the journalists,” the group’s Basra office said in a statement.

The Association of Iraqi Journalists also denounced the abductions and called on the kidnappers to release the two men, while the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists expressed dismay at the news.

“Iraq is the most dangerous country in the world for journalists and the deadliest conflict for the press in recent history,” said Joel Simon, the committee’s executive director. “Journalists face incalculable risks in order to bring us the news about what is happening on the ground there.”

Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based media watchdog, says the number of Iraqi and foreign journalists and media assistants to be killed in Iraq since the invasion is at least 208 – a lower toll than the Iraqi Journalist Syndicate’s figure. Most have been Iraqis killed by militants angered by their coverage or ideologically opposed to their employers. Others have died when caught in crossfire.

Some Westerners have been abducted and later released, among them Jill Carroll, a US freelancer who was kidnapped in January 2006, Florence Aubenas, a French journalist who was taken in January 2005, and Giuliana Sgrena, an Italian reporter abducted in February 2005.

British forces handed over security control of Basra to Iraqi authorities in mid-December and are now based at the city’s airport.

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