(Adds details from Nigeria, police say 10 kidnapped)

SEOUL, May 3 (Reuters) - A group of South Korean and Filipino workers have been kidnapped in Nigeria at a power plant construction site, a South Korean foreign ministry official and company officials said on Thursday.

They said three South Koreans and eight Filipinos were taken hostage. Nigerian police said three Koreans and seven Filipinos were captured.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Daewoo officials in the delta as saying the abduction followed a 40-minute gun battle between the unidentified captors and security guards, which probably left scores of people dead or injured.

A Daewoo Engineering & Construction official confirmed the abductees were their contract workers and said their condition was not immediately known.

The kidnapping took place near Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta between 0000 and 0100 GMT, officials said.

There has been a wave of violence against the energy industry in the delta where militancy is fuelled by poverty, lawlessness, corruption and struggles for control of a lucrative oil theft business.

The abduction raises to 16 the number of foreign workers being held by armed groups in Nigeria, Nigerian police said.

The militants say they want autonomy for the vast wetlands region that pumps all of Nigeria's oil.

In June last year, five South Korean Daewoo gas workers were freed 40 hours after they were abducted in the same area by rebels demanding the release of their jailed leader, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari.

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