PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria - Gunmen abducted a Lebanese construction worker near the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta, police said on Wednesday.

The kidnapping, at Mbiama community in Rivers state, brought to nine the number of foreigners held by armed groups in the lawless delta, which accounts for all of Nigeria's oil production.

"The man works for a road construction company," Rivers state Police Commissioner Felix Ogbuadu told Reuters by telephone. He gave no further details.

Kidnappings for ransom are common in the delta, a vast wetlands region where poor communities play host to a multi-billion dollar oil industry.

Growing violence against foreigners in Africa's top oil-producing country has prompted thousands of oil workers to leave the delta in the past year.

A wave of attacks last February led to a cut in Nigeria's oil production capacity of one-fifth. Output has yet to recover. -Reuters