Over a hundred people carrying banners with the portrait of a Peruvian photographer who was abducted in Gaza protested outside the Palestinian mission in Lima on Friday demanding his release.

Jaime Razuri, 50, who works for the French news agency Agence France Press, was seized on Monday by gunmen outside the AFP Gaza City office. No one has claimed responsibility for Razuri's abduction so far.

"Freedom for Jaime," chanted the crowd, which included the photographer's 79-year-old mother, prominent local reporters as well as ordinary Peruvians who flocked to the demonstration after El Comercio daily published a summons for the rally.

	Advertisement

It was the latest in a series of abductions of foreign aid workers and reporters in Gaza in the past year. All have been freed unharmed.

The head of the Palestinian mission to Lima, Walid Abdel Rahim, spoke to the crowd and condemned the abduction, saying it was "damaging the just fight" of his people.

Peruvian Deputy Foreign Minister Gonzalo Gutierrez, who is in Gaza to negotiate Razuri's release, told a local radio that according to the information he had received, Razuri was "well and calm." He said Palestinian authorities were cooperating.

Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde said on Wednesday Razuri had been kidnapped by "a dissident group within Hamas," which the Hamas government in Gaza denied, reiterating its call for an immediate and unconditional release of the photographer.