Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Philippine troops are hunting for armed men who kidnapped a 78-year-old Irish priest in the country’s south.

Michael Sinnott was taking an evening stroll in the garden of his home in Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur province, when gunmen burst in and bundled him into a pickup truck yesterday, the Columban Missionaries said in its Web site.

“Intelligence operatives are hot on the heels of six kidnappers,” Major Ramon David Hontiveros, a military spokesman for western Mindanao command, said in a statement today. The group abandoned and burned their get-away vehicle and continued their escape by boat, he added, without saying who may be behind the abduction.

The Muslim-majority southern Philippines is home to the al- Qaeda-linked militant group Abu Sayyaf, which the government blames for dozens of bombings and kidnappings. The separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front is also active in the region.

Sinnott, who’s been in the Philippines for decades, has a heart condition, Major General Romeo Lustestica, commander of the First Infantry Division, told reporters. Sea patrols have been deployed and checkpoints alerted, he said, adding that the kidnappers haven’t issued any demands.

The kidnapping comes nine months after Abu Sayyaf abducted three Red Cross workers on the island of Jolo. They were released one by one in a hostage crisis that lasted for six months. The group was also blamed for kidnapping Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi, who was held for more than a month in 2007.

To contact the reporter on this story: Cecilia Yap in Manila at cyap19@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 12, 2009 02:37 EDT