Armed men believed to have ties with the Abu Sayyaf bandit group on Thursday evening abducted two people from a seaside restaurant in Sabah, a Malaysian news site reported.
Four gunmen struck at the Ocean King Seafood Restaurant near Sandakan at about 8 p.m. and abducted the manager and a customer, The Star Online reported.
One of the four was armed with an automatic rifle with bullets strapped on his chest while another had a pistol, the report said.
Sabah authorities are hunting the group, who the report said is believed to be "cross-border kidnap gangs" with links to the Abu Sayyaf.
The report quoted restaurant owner Chung Yan Tsim as saying those abducted included his sister-in-law, 48, and a male customer. Chung's sister-in-law manages the restaurant.
"They fled in a boat. There wore no mask and there was no shooting," Chung said.
It took the gunmen less than a minute to pull off the abduction, the report said.
Security forces went on alert, noting Sandakan is just an hour's ride from the Bakungan Besar in southern Philippines via speedboat.
Eastern Sabah Security Command commander Datuk Abdul Rashid Harun said they were at the scene and taking necessary action but declined to elaborate.
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