British girl, 6, kidnapped by Muslim gang
Four suspected Muslim gunmen have kidnapped a six-year-old British girl in the southern Philippines after her mother could not meet their demand for cash.
The four suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf separatist group entered the home of Philippine national Nina Rasul Grant and demanded 100,000 pesos (£1,500).
The woman said she only had 1,000 pesos so the men pointed assault rifles at her, grabbed her daughter April and fled down the nearby Bubawan river in two motorised outriggers.
Army spokesman Major Fredesvindo Covarrubias said the Grants were in Lamitan town on Basilan island, some 550 miles south of Manila, while they were waiting to join the girl's father, Frank Grant, who is currently in Scotland.
Maj Covarrubias said the kidnappers were likely to be part of a band of Abu Sayyaf rebels that have kidnapped in the Basilan area in the past.
Abu Sayyaf is the smaller but more extremist of two Muslim rebel groups fighting to create a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
Officials of the British Embassy in Manila were not immediately available for comment.
Last April, Abu Sayyaf rebels kidnapped 21 Western holidaymakers and Asian workers from a Malaysian dive resort and brought them to the Philippine island of Jolo, near Tawi Tawi. They later kidnapped several other people, including foreign journalists.
All but two of the captives, American Jeffrey Schilling and Filipino dive resort worker Roland Ullah, were freed by the rebels, reportedly in exchange for huge ransoms.
The military began massive assaults against the rebels in September to rescue the remaining hostages and neutralise the guerrilla group.
