The State Department is monitoring reports from the Philippine authorities that Elliot Onil Eastman was kidnapped Thursday night by gunmen. The department is coordinating with local authorities to navigate the investigation.

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.

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.

Gunmen have abducted an American man living in the southern Philippines, shooting him in the leg and ferrying him away in a boat, police said Friday. The victim, named by police as Elliot Onil Eastman,