Nairobi/Mogadishu  - Gunmen have kidnapped four United Nations aid workers in the south of conflict-ridden Somalia, the UN said Monday.

Dawn Elizabeth Blalock, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that the four were taken on Monday morning as they travelled to the airport in the town of Waajid, around 340 kilometres north-west of the capital Mogadishu.

Blalock said that while the kidnappers were armed, there was no violence or shooting during the kidnapping.

Three of the aid workers were believed to be foreign, with some reports suggesting one of them is a Russian. However, no official confirmation on their identities or nationalities was forthcoming.

Blalock said that the UN had not been in contact with the abductors, but was doing everything it could to secure their release.

Armed gangs and insurgents have repeatedly kidnapped and murdered aid workers and journalists in Somalia, which has been embroiled in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. (dpa)