“Two boats of the Kenyan coastguard have surrounded the boat which the gunmen and woman are on,” Najib Balala told Reuters, adding the standoff was taking place near the border with Somalia.

Gunmen kidnapped the woman from the north Kenyan coast, the second violent abduction of a foreign visitor from the Lamu archipelago in three weeks, police said.  

Abu Chiaba, the legislator for Lamu East, said the gunmen raided a private house under the cover of darkness, seizing the woman. The area’s police chief said security forces were combing the area.  

“Armed people came into Manda by boat in the middle of the night. The elderly French woman is well known in the area, she comes to Manda regularly,” Chiaba told Reuters.  

In early September, gunmen attacked British tourists at a camp resort a short speedboat ride away from Lamu, killing the man and kidnapping his wife.  

Somali pirates said she was being held in Somalia, raising fears pirates were becoming more emboldened in their cross-border attacks.  

“We have deployed a contingent of police officers to the area. The army is already there and a police helicopter is in the air,” said Provincial Police Officer Adoli Aggrey.  

The latest kidnapping risks dealing a serious blow to Kenya’s tourism sector, a major source of foreign exchange for the region’s biggest economy.