Chakama attack: Italian woman kidnapped by heavily armed gunmen in Kenya

'Before leaving the village, they started shooting in the air and they shot one woman and four boys'

File image: Kenyan soldiers respond to an al-Shabaab attack in 2015. (Getty Images)

An Italian woman has been kidnapped by gunmen during an attack on the south-eastern coastal town of Chakama in Kenya, and five other women and young men have been shot.

Police said a "gang... abducted an Italian lady aged 23 years who is a volunteer of Africa Milele Onlus, an NGO operating in the area", in a statement posted on Twitter.

A witness said the gunmen were initially demanding money from terrified residents, but took the Italian volunteer, who has not been named, with them when they left. It is the first kidnapping of a European citizen in Kenya for a number of years.

The men, armed with AK-47 rifles, attacked the town of Chakama on Tuesday evening, police said. The town is west of Malindi, a major tourism destination on the coast.

There was no immediate comment from the Italian government.

Police did not say if the gunmen were suspect militants from al-Shabaab, an Islamist group based in neighbouring Somalia that has launched deadly attacks in Kenya for years, including the 2013 attack on a shopping mall in the capital, Nairobi, in which nearly 70 people were killed.

"Neither the reasons for the attack nor the identity of the attackers have been established," police said.

An unidentified witness told Kenyan TV channel KTN News: "The European lady got out of her room, instead of lying on the ground, to enquire what was going on. One of the attackers then slapped her."

"Their aim was to get money but they took off with her to the river and, before leaving the village, they started shooting in the air and they shot one woman and four boys," the witness said.

Police said the wounded were all under the age of 25, and were taken to hospital. One boy, aged 10, suffered a gunshot wound to his left eye, but was described as being in a stable condition.

Police officers were pursuing the gunmen, a statement read, adding: "We assure the public that we are sparing no effort in tracking down the criminals and rescue the victim."

Al-Shabaab have intensified attacks in Kenya since it sent troops into Somalia in 2011, and there have been several attacks in recent months in which Kenyan soldiers were killed.

Nonetheless, those attacks have all taken place in Lamu County, which is north of Kilifi and borders Somalia. Chakama, where Tuesday evening's attack took place, is nearly 300km (185 miles) southwest of the Kenya-Somalia border.

Additional reporting by Reuters