Palestinian security sources said a Briton and an American were kidnapped by Palestinian gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday afternoon.

The sources said several masked militants stopped the car of the two foreign journalists near Khan Yunis and took them away at gunpoint.

Witnesses said the militants claimed themselves as members of " the Black Panthers", an old armed wing of the mainstream Fatah movement.

Palestinian police and security troops deployed in Kahn Yunis were searching for the two foreigners.

There were sporadic abductions of foreigners in the Gaza Strip in recent months, but the hostages were released unharmed within hours after negotiations between militants and the Palestinian security forces.

Source: Xinhua