Clementina Cantoni from Lombardy, who works for the CARE International aid agency, was kidnapped at about 8:30 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Monday evening after the vehicle she was travelling in was intercepted and blocked by another car.

Four gunmen grabbed her from her car, bundled her into a white Toyota car and drove away, security officials said.

“We are coordinating with all relevant Afghan authorities at the highest level in order to make sure all efforts are deployed to reach our goal,” said an Italian embassy official.

The kidnapping has raised fears among Kabul’s 2,000-strong foreign community that anti-government insurgents might begin Iraq-style kidnappings.

The embassy official declined to comment when asked if the kidnap gang had made any contact or issued any demands.

“The investigation has just started,” he said.

A senior Interior Ministry official said authorities were investigating but he declined to give details.

Three U.N. workers were kidnapped in Kabul in October and held for 27 days before being released unharmed.

The government said they were grabbed by a gang of criminals who could have been hired by a Taleban splinter faction that threatened to kill them unless Taleban prisoners were freed.

The district in Kabul where Cantoni was kidnapped has several guest houses and restaurants popular with foreigners.

A bomb attack in an Internet cafe in the area this month killed three people, including a U.N. worker from Myanmar.

Cantoni’s family wished for a speedy and happy ending, Italy’s ANSA news agency said.

“The only thing we want to say is that we hope this finishes quickly and happily,” ANSA quoted a family friend as saying in a statement.

While Kabul is much safer than Baghdad, aid agencies have issued warnings to staff to keep a low profile in recent weeks following two unsuccessful attempts to kidnap foreigners.

Embassies also urge vigilance.

In April, an American man was forced into the trunk of a car but managed to jump out. In another incident, a car carrying foreigners was intercepted by gunmen but the driver reversed away and escaped.

A British adviser to the government was shot dead near a U.N. guest house in March.

Taleban guerrillas have attacked and killed dozens of aid and election workers since launching an insurgency after they were forced from power by US-led forces in 2001 for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden.

But most of their attacks have been in the countryside, particularly in the south and east.