A search is underway for a Polish doctor kidnapped from a hospital in Chad

N’DJAMENA, Chad — A search was underway for a Polish doctor kidnapped in southern Chad, officials and media in Poland reported Monday.

The woman was volunteering at the Saint-Michel Hospital, several hundred kilometers (miles) from the capital in the Central African nation, when attackers pretending to be patients abducted her and a Mexican doctor, Polsat News, a private Polish broadcaster, reported.

Dr. Carlos Solgado told The Associated Press by phone that he escaped during an altercation between the abductors and Chad's security forces while the Polish woman was taken away.

He said the attack happened Friday morning when four armed men on two motorbikes came into the hospital. Solgado said the kidnappers told them they just wanted money and didn't intend to kill them.

Kidnappings for ransom are frequent in the Tandjile region, where the abduction occurred.

Poland's Foreign Ministry said Chadian and French forces were searching for the woman and Polish diplomatic and consular services were in contact with local authorities and her family.

In 2021, a French national was kidnapped from the country’s east and found alive two days later.