ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines -- (UPDATE 5) The Swiss representative of the International Committee on the Red Cross (ICRC) to the Philippines and two other workers of the aid organization were seized at gunpoint by still unidentified men near the Sulu capitol building in Patikul town Thursday morning, authorities said.

By late Thursday afternoon, the police had yet to identify who the abductors are, Chief Superintendent Bensali Jabarani, regional police director of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview.

Armed Forces spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Torres, said no group has yet claimed responsibility for seizing the ICRC team.

Senior Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, Sulu police director, said Andreas Notter, 38, the Swiss head the of the ICRC office in Zamboanga City; Italian Eugenio Vagni, 62; and Filipino engineer Jean Lacaba, 37, of Davao City, were seized at the Area Coordinating Center (ACC), a conference hall between the provincial capitol and provincial jail.

The victims, who were with three other ICRC staff members, were taken at gunpoint by at least eight men as they emerged from the ACC, where they interviewed officials of the Sulu Provincial Jail.

The suspects then ordered the victims to board an ICRC vehicle, leaving behind Dr. Richie Sorilla, ICRC medical field officer; Ramon Catacutan, senior field officer; and Mohamad Shihata Jikiri, field officer.

Brigadier General Eugene Clemen, commander of the 3rd Marine Brigade based in Patikul, said the victims were on their way out of the capitol compound when the armed men ordered them to board the ICRC vehicle.

"Some witnesses informed us that three of the Filipino passengers [Sorilla, Catacutan and Jikiri] were forced to leave the vehicle," Clemen said.

"Kami nga nagtataka kung bakit sila nakuha sa labas lang ng building ng jail facility [We’re wondering why they were taken so easily just outside the jail facility]," Clemen said.

The jail is just about five meters away from the provincial capitol and a few steps away from the ACC.

Clemen said they believed an Abu Sayyaf group under Albader Parad to be behind the kidnapping.

Esperat said the ICRC staff members visited the provincial jail to know the conditions of the prisoners there.

"That's why an engineer, Jean Lacaba, was there to assess the facility and find out how we could help the prisoners there," Esperat said.

Lieutenant General Nelson Allaga, chief of the Western Mindanao Command, said the alert was raised after the team failed to take their Sea Air flight to Zamboanga City.

The team had been in Sulu since January 13 for “humanitarian activities,” 1st Lieutenant Esteffani Cacho, community information officer of the Western Mindanao Command said.

"They had been carrying out a water and sanitation project to improve the condition of detainees," ICRC spokesman Reynaldo Guioguio told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Another ICRC spokesman, Roland Bigler, said the international organization would not suspend its humanitarian work in other parts of the southern Philippines, where hundreds of thousands have been displaced by fighting between government troops and Moro rebels.

"There will be no work stoppage. Our humanitarian work on the ground will continue," Bigler said.

“They [ICRC team] were duly advised about the security situation on the island but being a neutral organization had [refused] armed escorts,” Cacho, said.

"Right now we are forming a crisis management committee for this incident," John Robert Esperat, ICRC Davao sub-delegation staff, said.

He declined to give further details, saying authorities in Sulu have been trying their best to assess the situation and recover the three victims.

But an apparently irked Sulu Governor Abdusakur Tan told the Inquirer that the kidnapping put the province "in shame."

"Talagang nakakahiya ang ginawa nila, at nakakahiya para sa aming lahat [What they did is really shameful, this is shameful for all of us]," he said.

"Hindi ko mapapatawad ang nangyaring ito [I can’t let this pass], and I am warning the families of the suspected kidnappers to better cooperate with the authorities otherwise, we will treat them like kidnappers," Tan said in a phone interview.

The governor said the ICRC vehicle was found two hours after the 11 a.m. abduction, in the village of Banganan, some seven kilometers away from where the abduction happened.

"It contains two bags probably belonging to the two of three ICRC personnel," he said.

All military and police forces have been mobilized to go after the kidnappers and their victims, according to the governor. "We are on the right track and we are hoping soon that we'll get them," Tan.

Tan said he was informed that the ICRC was planning to help in the rehabilitation of the provincial jail following the escape of 13 prisoners last Tuesday.