Gunmen in Nigeria have kidnapped seven foreigners and killed a security guard when they stormed the compound of Lebanese construction company Setraco in the northern Bauchi.
Police said that among those abducted were a Briton, an Italian, a Greek and four Lebanese workers, police officials told Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris on Sunday.
Idris, reporting from the Nigerian capital of Abuja, said security forces were on high alert to locate the hostages after they were kidnapped in Jama'are town.
Bauchi Police Chief Mohammed Ladan said gunmen attacked a police station and a prison overnight before storming the construction firm's compound.
"We repelled the attack on police station and the security men at the prison yard also repelled the attack, but they burnt two vehicles in Jama'are police station," Ladan said.
"They then attacked Setraco construction, killed a local security guard and they succeeded in kidnapping people."
The Italian foreign ministry confirmed one of its nationals was taken in the raid. A spokesman for the British Embassy in Abuja said it was investigating.
Foreigners, frequently abducted by armed groups and criminal gangs for ransom in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta, have become increasingly targeted in the country's north as the violence has grown.
In December, al-Qaeda aligned group Ansaru group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a French national who remains missing.
Meanwhile, in May, gunmen in Kaduna state shot and killed a Lebanese and a Nigerian construction worker, while kidnapping another Lebanese employee.
Later that month, kidnappers shot a German hostage dead during a rescue operation.
Gunmen, who authorities say have links to Boko Haram armed group, kidnapped an Italian and a British man last year in northern Kebbi State who were later killed during a rescue operation by Nigerian soldiers backed up by British special forces. The group later denied taking part in that abduction.
Setraco Nigeria, a construction and civil engineering company, is a subsidiary of Setraco International Holding group.
The Nigerian company, which was established in 1977, is currently working on expanding a major road in the north of the country.