BEIRUT: Two German men kidnapped in eastern Lebanon were freed on Saturday, hours after their abduction, but police immediately arrested them on drug trafficking charges, the official National News Agency reported.

“The Germans abducted last night in the eastern Bekaa Valley were released today,” NNA said. “After they were freed, a police unit from the Internal Security Force arrested the Germans on charges of drug trafficking, and a search for the abductors is underway,” it reported.

A German government spokeswoman confirmed the pair were “now in the hands of the Lebanese police.”

“The embassy and the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs are dealing with this case,” the ministry spokeswoman told AFP in Berlin.

“We are in contact with both the Germans and all relevant authorities in this case,” she said, without giving a reason for their detention.

The Germans were seized on Friday by unknown gunmen demanding a ransom for their release, in what a security official said appeared to be a criminal rather than a political act.