40 Indians in Iraq 'uncontactable' and feared kidnapped

A ministry spokesman said he could not confirm the report in the Times of India that insurgents have abducted the 40 workers in the northern city of Mosul amid a deteriorating security situation.

"Despite our best efforts at this stage we haven't been able to contact them. So they remain uncontactable at this stage," said spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told reporters.

"Beyond that I am not able to confirm or verify reports of a speculative nature (kidnapping)," Akbaruddin added.

"At this stage we have no reports whatsoever, no confirmation, no verification of any Indian national being involved in any violent accident or injury."

The Indian foreign ministry has set up a 24-hour control room in New Delhi to provide information on Iraq and was dispatching a former envoy to the country to assist its embassy in Baghdad.

The Times of India, citing unnamed sources, said the 40, who were working on various projects, were abducted by the militants during an evacuation of the Mosul area.

Since launching their offensive on June 9, the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has captured Mosul and a big chunk of mainly-Sunni Arab territory stretching south towards the capital.

As many as 46 Indian nurses were also stranded in Iraq waiting for the turmoil to subside.

Several have told NDTV and other Indian television stations by phone that they were living like prisoners at a state-run hospital in Tikrit city after being abandoned by their employers as well as the military.

The offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and sent jitters through world oil markets as the militants have advanced ever nearer to Baghdad, leaving the Shiite-led government in disarray.

Turkey awaits news of their kidnapped citizens

This news comes while Turkey is also concerned as to the fate of their own kidnapped citizens. 

ISIL fighters abducted 49 people from the Turkish consulate in Mosul on last Wednesday, after earlier seizing 31 Turkish truck drivers from a power station in the city.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc later revealed that Turkey had prior warning of an attack on its consulate, and did not evacuate.

"We were more or less informed that ISIL was going to target our consulate while advancing (through Iraq)," he said.

Turkey decided not to evacuate the building, judging that to be too high risk given the security situation outside, he said.

Arinc told reporters the government had made contact by telephone with the hostages and they had "not been exposed to any bad treatment."

Turkey's prime minister said last week that his government was doing "everything necessary" to secure the release of dozens of its citizens seized by jihadists in Iraq, after opposition criticism of its handling of the crisis.