Congolese army and park rangers launch operation to rescue British tourists kidnapped in Virunga National Park

The tourists are believed to be two men

The Congolese army and park rangers have launched an operation to locate the two British tourists kidnapped in the Virunga National Park, an army spokesman said.

Two British citizens, who have not been named, were abducted while visiting the park in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), wildlife officials have said. The driver of the group's vehicle was also seized.

A female park ranger who was travelling with them was killed in the ambush, the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation has confirmed.

The woman who tried to save the two British tourists before she was killed has been named as 25-year-old Rachel Masika Baraka.

Virunga National Park said in a statement Ms Baraka was critically injured in the attack and she died of her injuries in hospital.

Park Director, Emmanuel de Merode, said Ms Baraka was one of the park’s 26 female rangers and was "highly committed, showing true bravery in her work".

The Virunga National park has lost eight rangers in 2018 alone, "a stark reminder of the level of risk they undertake on a daily basis to help conserve the park’s wildlife and protect local communities" Mr de Merode added.

Major Guillaume Kaiko Ndjike, the army's spokesman in North Kivu, said: "With Virunga National Park being within our zone of action, we have joined the park rangers for search operations for the people taken hostages."

Joel Wenga, from the Institute for Nature Conservation, said officials were unable to provide much information about the incident because it risked putting the hostages' lives in danger.

Simon Calder, travel correspondent at The Independent, reported that the driver of the vehicle in which the Britons were travelling had also been injured.

He said the two Britons are both believed to be men.

Unidentified armed men ambushed the group of four in the morning near the village of Kibati, north of Goma, the capital of the North Kivu province, according to Mambo Kawaya, who heads a group of local civil society organisations. The scene of the kidnap is about 1,700 miles from the capital, Kinshasa.

The Foreign Office (FCO) said it was in contact with the Congolese authorities following the incident and said its staff were providing support to their families.

The FCO advises against all travel to the eastern side of the country, stating: "The security situation in eastern DRC remains unstable. The continued presence of armed groups, military operations against them, intercommunal violence and an influx of refugees from neighbouring countries all contribute to a deterioration in the political, security and humanitarian situation. There are continued reports of kidnappings, including of staff from international NGOs.

"Tourists in eastern DRC have been known to be left very vulnerable as a result of trying to travel independently without escorted transport, and the risk of kidnap or injury as a result of armed or criminal activity remains high."

Information is hard to gather from the region, which is extremely difficult to access and where there is hardly any Western presence.

On its website, the FCO states that "there are limits to the assistance the FCO can provide in a crisis, depending on the security and transport situation."

Tourists are drawn to the area in eastern Congo because of its endangered mountain gorillas.

Mountain gorillas are found only in the Virunga Massif, a chain of eight volcanoes spanning in the east of the DRC and western Uganda.

Primate tourism is well-established in Uganda and Rwanda. But a year ago, Rwanda doubled the cost of permits to visit mountain gorillas from $750 (£550) to $1,500.

Mr Calder said this had led some backpackers to seek a cheaper gorilla experience in the eastern part of the DRC, which he described as "an extremely lawless part of the world".

Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler said that in the DRC the waiting list for a moment with the gorillas was much shorter and the experience "probably a little less commercial".

Kidnappings in the area are not new. Last year, Reuters reported kidnapping of locals and Westerners was on the rise in the eastern part of the DRC

According to Human Rights Watch, hostages are being taken to obtain a ransom and most cases include Congolese people rather than Westerners. The NGO said kidnappers typically operate in groups of up to a dozen or more people, and are often heavily armed with Kalashnikovs and other military assault weapons.

Militias and armed groups have been roaming the area since the end of the country's bloody civil war in 2003 but a recent surge in violence saw five rangers and a driver killed in an ambush last month, raising the total number of ranger killed in the area to 175.