MANILA:  The Philippine police said Friday it has launched a search after gunmen reportedly abducted an American national, who was shot in the leg as he tried to resist before being spirited away from a southern Philippine coastal town by speedboat.

An American national was reportedly shot in the leg by a group of gunmen and kidnapped in the Philippines, prompting law enforcement officials to launch a search for the American, who was taken away by the unidentified suspects in a speed boat.

An American man documenting his life in the Philippines was shot in the leg and abducted by a group of gunman dressed up as police officers, according to local authorities.

Four armed men shot and abducted a 26-year-old from Vermont in western Mindanao, the police said. He had been living in the area since May.

Police in the Philippines are searching for American national Elliot Onil Eastman, from Vermont, after receiving reports gunmen had kidnapped him.

Elliot Onil Eastman, a 26-year-old American YouTuber from Vermont, was kidnapped by armed men in black from a coastal village in the Philippines on Thursday night, just months after marrying a local woman.

Footage shows the Muslim wedding of abducted American YouTuber Elliot Eastman, 26, to his wife Karisha Jala in the seaside town of Sibuco in Zamboanga del Norte province, the Philippines, in 2023. The pair exchanged religious vows and rings in a small ceremony attended by friends and family in the poverty-stricken area.