Gunmen break into factory, kidnap 3 workers

Manila: Authorities say gunmen have stormed a plywood factory and abducted three workers one day after suspected Muslim militants beheaded a kidnapped schoolteacher on a nearby southern Philippine island.

Military spokesman Major David Hontiveros says about 20 attackers broke through a wooden fence Tuesday and took away three men from the factory in coastal Maluso town on Basilan Island.

The latest abductions in the south, where Al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants have evaded US-backed Philippine offensives, came as the military promised a swift retaliation for the beheading of a teacher whose family failed to raise ransom money on Jolo Island.