Turkish pilots kidnapped in Lebanon
01:42 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

Gunmen halt a bus near Beirut, Lebanon

They board it and take away two Turkish Airline pilots

The rest of the crew is safe at a hotel and will return to Turkey soon

CNN  — 

Gunmen stopped a bus near Beirut, Lebanon, in the early hours of Friday, boarded it and kidnapped two Turkish pilots, Turkey’s foreign ministry said.

The pilots work for Turkish Airlines. They were riding the bus from Rafic Hariri International Airport to their hotel when the assailants in two vehicles stopped it, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

Reports on the number of attackers varied from four to eight.

Other employees aboard the bus made it safely to the hotel and are to head back to Turkey later Friday, the foreign ministry said.

“The Lebanese government has begun taking the necessary steps for an investigation,” the ministry said.

Security agents questioned the driver as a witness, the news agency reported.

CNN’s Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report