Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said two of his country’s nationals along with an Italian steel worker had been abducted in Syria on a motorway from the port city of Tartous.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said two of his country’s nationals along with an Italian steel worker had been abducted in Syria on a motorway from the port city of Tartous.

"By all appearances, they are Russians," Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on a visit to the Central Asia state of Uzbekistan.
He added that Russia was undertaking "all the necessary steps both in Syria and other countries" to win the men's release.

Russian embassy in Damascus had earlier confirmed that two of the country's workers had been abducted together with a man identified by the Italian media as Mario Belluomo.

"Two Russians and an Italian were kidnapped on the road linking Tartous to Homs," the spokesman of the Russian embassy in Damascus Sergei Markov told state television.

Neither the two Russians' identity nor the circumstances of the abduction were released.
The Russian embassy noted however that all three men worked for a privately-owned Syrian factory in Tartous, Interfax reported.

It was not immediately clear when the abduction occurred.