Awdhegle,(insidesomalia.org)- Gunmen kidnapped three aid workers two Italians and a Somali in Somalia's Lower Shabelle region on Wednesday, the latest in a string of attacks against humanitarian groups in Somalia.

"Three aid workers, among them two Italians, a man and a woman, were kidnapped early this morning by armed men who blindfolded them and took them away," a local mother in the village told inside Somalia.

A local security official confirmed the kidnapping and said that security soldiers are now trucking down the kidnappers.

"We are currently investigating who kidnapped them and where they were taken," mother Halima Hussein resident in village said.

The kidnapping took place at around 6:40 a.m. Mogadishu time in the village of Awdhegle, some 75 kilometers south west of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

The three who were abducted all worked for an Italian non-governmental organisation called Cooperazione Italiana Nord Sud (CINS), or North-South Italian Cooperation, both officials said.

The mother in the village said that the domestichostage along with the expatriates is called Abdirahman Yusuf Arale, and was the local head of the Italian aid group.

Somali security officials in the region where the kidnapping took place said that CINS staff had already come under attack at a checkpoint on May 2 threatened but not taken as hostages.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, they said that three people had died in the exchange of fire -- one attacker, one member of the CINS escort and one member of the Somali security services -- although they could not confirm that the Italians were targeted.

Armed groups in Somalia have repeatedly targeted aid workers, including foreigners, in recent months.

The spate of kidnappings and killings has complicated the delivery of aid to the most affected populations in the Horn of Africa country, where the UN says one of the world's worst humanitarian catastrophes is unfolding.