The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) rebels abducted Tuesday the chief of the Zamboanga City police and four police officers, aggravating the week-long conflict in southern Philippines.

Senior Supt. Jose Chiquito Malayo and four policemen were near the conflict area when they were kidnapped at gunpoint by MNLF rebels around 10 a.m local time, according to Lt. Col. Harold Cabunoc, commander of the 7th Civil Relations Group.

He said Malayo and his men were taken by his captors to Tictabon island off Zamboanga City aboard a speedboat. Government troops are pursuing the rebels.

The Zamboanga crisis entered its ninth day after hundreds of MNLF leader Nur Misuari's followers went to the city and encountered government troops. The group seized hundreds of civilians in at four coastal villages and used them as their shields.