Copenhagen  - Danish police have issued a nationwide alert after a 5-year-old boy was abducted by three masked men, reports said Thursday.

The men kidnapped the boy Wednesday afternoon outside his kindergarten in Virum, a suburb north of Copenhagen, where his mother was waiting to pick him up.

One of the men reportedly hit the mother while another pushed the boy into a waiting car.

Police have not ruled out that the abduction could be linked to possible demands for a ransom, but no word has been heard from the kidnappers.

The parents, of Chinese origin, operate several restaurants and have issued an appeal that the boy would not be harmed.

"There is no doubt that the abduction was planned," lead investigator Henning Svendsen told broadcaster DR, citing that the car used in the abduction had stolen licence plates. (dpa)