Police investigate alleged cemetery kidnap

Police are investigating an alleged kidnap in North Taranaki after three teens were taken from an Inglewood cemetery by two armed men last night.

The teens were bundled into their own car and driven towards Waitara around 7.45pm but two of them, a man and a woman, were released a short time later and the man called police.

The third teen was found about midnight just outside Waitara.

Detective Senior Sergeant Keith Borrell of New Plymouth police confirmed to NZPA this morning an investigation was under way.

He said police were "getting to the bottom of" the complaint.

Police would speak to the kidnap victims before midday, and hoped to have further details this afternoon.

Senior Sergeant Robbie O'Keefe of New Plymouth told the Taranaki Daily News the offenders, believed to be Maori, stopped at a petrol station in Waitara and filled their stolen car with $80 of fuel before driving away without paying.

Mr O'Keefe said police were checking addresses the car could be at, and were seeking sightings of the car from last night or this morning.

The stolen car was a 1989 two-door Nissan Skyline registered ZI 3598.

One of the offenders was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt and the other a black hooded sweatshirt.

They covered their faces during the kidnapping and the petrol theft.

It was not known if the pistol used in the kidnapping was real.

The motive for the alleged kidnap was unknown.

- NZPA