Seven Catholic clerics, including two French, were kidnapped on Sunday near Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The kidnappers have since demanded a ransom of one million euros in exchange for their release.

An investigation entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (OCLCO) was opened on Monday. 

An investigation was opened in Paris on Monday for "kidnapping and kidnapping in an organized gang" after the kidnapping of two French nationals from among seven Catholic clerics in Haiti on Sunday, the prosecution said.

The investigation was entrusted to the Central Office for the Fight against Organized Crime (OCLCO), said the Paris prosecutor's office, competent for crimes committed abroad against French citizens. 

The kidnappers demanded a ransom of one million euros in exchange for the release of the group, kidnapped Sunday morning at Croix-des-Bouquets, near Port-au-Prince, capital of this poor Caribbean country in prey to great insecurity.

A gang suspected by the police

The two French are from the west of France: the nun from the department of Mayenne and the priest, who has lived in Haiti for more than thirty years, from Ille-et-Vilaine.

"The crisis and support center of the ministry as well as our embassy in Haiti are fully mobilized, in close relation with the local authorities", indicated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirming the kidnapping of the two French people.

>> READ ALSO

- "No reasons for this kidnapping", believes a relative of the kidnapped French

The seven religious - four Haitian priests and one nun as well as the two Frenchmen - were going "to the installation of a new priest", explained Father Loudger Mazile.

Police suspect an armed gang - dubbed "400 Mawozo" - active in the area where the kidnapping occurred, to be behind it, according to a police source.

According to the Haitian Conference of Religious (CHR), three other people, close to another priest who was not one of those kidnapped, were also kidnapped.

The Conference of Bishops of France and the Conference of Men and Women Religious of France called on the kidnappers to "release the men and women of peace they kidnapped and not to add further hatred where there is already poverty and insecurity ".

Kidnappings for ransom have increased in recent months in Port-au-Prince and in the provinces, testifying to the growing hold of armed gangs on Haitian territory.