Gunman kidnap Frenchman, kill Afghan in Kabul

KABUL (Reuters) - Gunmen kidnapped a French aid worker in the Afghan capital Monday and shot dead an Afghan driver for the national intelligence agency who tried to stop the abduction, a senior police officer said.

The kidnapping will increase the sense of threat felt by hundreds of Westerners working in Kabul, coming less than 10 days since a Briton and South African were shot dead and two weeks after a British woman aid worker was also killed in the city.

The Frenchman was walking in the street in the west of the city when gunmen in a red Toyota saloon seized him, said the police official who declined to be named.

A passing driver working for the National Directorate of Security intelligence agency, stopped and tried to intervene, but was shot dead by the abductors, the officer said.

Afghanistan has seen record levels of violence this year as the hardline Islamist Taliban step up their campaign to overthrow the Western-backed Afghan government.

Taliban militants have kidnapped dozens of foreigners and hundreds of Afghans since they relaunched their insurgency three years ago, but armed criminal bands have also abducted businessmen and wealthier Afghans for ransom.

Most have been released unharmed, but a number have been killed.

(Reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by David Fox)