The Georgian Interior Ministry said that “a group of gunmen operating on the Russian-occupied territory” kidnapped a Georgian citizen after seizing a car on the Georgia’s major east-west highly on February 7.

The car, driving from Tbilisi to the western Georgian town of Zugdidi was stopped by four armed men and hijacked together with a driver in direction of the village of Orchosani in breakaway South Ossetia; three other passengers were forced out of the car and left on the incident site, according to the Georgian Interior Ministry.

The village of Orchosani is administratively inside the borders of former autonomous republic of South Ossetia and is located on the south-eastern edge of the administrative border. That section of the administrative border lies in a close vicinity to the main east-west highly.

The abducted man, Malkhaz Beuklishvili, is a football referee who was going in Zugdidi for a Georgia’s championship match. The Georgian media sources reported that kidnappers had demanded USD 50,000 ransom.