Updated

Security officials in Yemen say armed men have abducted a British national working with an oil services company on a main street in the capital of Sanaa.

The officials say the British man left a local supermarket on Monday morning and was about to get into his car when four gunmen grabbed him, beat him with their rifle butts and forced him into their car before speeding off.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity according to regulations, which also prohibit them from providing the Briton's name.

Abductions are frequent in Yemen, an impoverished nation where armed tribesmen and al-Qaida-linked militants take hostages in an effort to swap them for prisoners or cash.

On Friday, a German citizen who was in Yemen studying Arabic was abducted in Sanaa.