Gunmen in South Africa have abducted a U.S. missionary from his church as he was delivering a sermon, police and a colleague said Friday.

Pastor Josh Sullivan was abducted late Thursday at the Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell outside the coastal city of Gqeberha in what appeared to be a kidnapping for ransom, a colleague told AFP.

Kidnappings, including by criminal gangs that target people for whom large ransoms can be demanded, have been increasing in South Africa in recent years.

"It is alleged that while a sermon was conducted at the church, four armed and masked male suspects entered the church," police said in a statement. "They robbed two cell phones and then took the 45-year-old male pastor with them and fled the scene."