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Nepal mounts search for kidnapped British officer

KATHMANDU, Tuesday (Reuters) Nepal sent troops and police to its remote west on Tuesday to hunt for five people, including a British army officer, kidnapped by Maoist rebels while on a drive to recruit Gurkha soldiers for the British army, officials said.

The British officer and four Nepali soldiers were taken on Sunday as they recruited young Gurkhas from a remote village in Baglung district, 300 km (190 miles) west of capital Kathmandu.

"We rushed in a rescue team consisting of soldiers and policemen early today," Baglung district administrator Prem Narayan Sharma told Reuters by phone.

Nepali officials said on Monday there were two Britons among the five kidnapped by the rebels. But an official, who declined to be named, said on Tuesday there was only one British army officer in the group.

Sharma said the search team had begun its gruelling five-hour walk to the village at daybreak through rebel-infested hilly terrain.

The area is a stronghold of Maoist insurgents fighting since 1996 to topple Nepal's constitutional monarchy.

Sharma said he believed that the five detainees were in no danger and hoped the kidnappers would release them on Tuesday. "Once the rescue team arrives in the village I think it will not be difficult to find them," Sharma said.

The British army recruits about 230 Gurkhas from Nepal annually.

Maoist rebels oppose the recruitment of Gurkhas by Britain and India, which also takes Nepali nationals into its army.

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