Two French aid workers who went missing four days ago are reported to have been kidnapped by Taliban militants in southwest Afghanistan.
"They were kidnapped on the highway in Khash Rod district and taken to neighbouring Helmand," a provincial governor said on Saturday.
The governor is the first official to confirm that the French nationals, who went missing on Tuesday, were kidnapped.
The aid workers from the organisation Terre d'Enfance (A World for Our Children) were travelling with three Afghans from Nimroz to Farah province when they went missing.
The Taliban militia, who have mounted a bloody insurgency since they were forced out of government by US-led forces in 2001, claimed late on Wednesday to have captured the five.
Search abandoned
The governor said a search operation by about 200 security officials for the missing people in Khad Rod district had been called off Saturday after the troops failed to locate them.
"Most of our troops have returned and the operation has been called off. We conducted a very massive operation including searching suspected houses but we couldn't find them in the area," he said.
Helmand province, where the intelligence reports say the hostages have been moved to, is a Taliban stronghold where the rebels hold several districts.
An Italian journalist was kidnapped March 5 by the Taliban in Helmand province, which adjoins Nimroz.
Daniele Mastrogiacomo was released two weeks later in a controversial deal.
The Taliban are still holding Mastrogiacomo's translator, Afghan reporter Ajmal Naqshbandi, and have demanded the release of two more Taliban in exchange for his freedom. The rebels beheaded a driver captured with them.
The rebels are also holding five Afghan medics they kidnapped on March 27 in the southern province of Kandahar.