A young man, son of a businessman from the town of Pravets, was kidnapped in the late hours of October 19 2009 in Sofia's Studentski Grad borough, news agencies said.

The man was identified as Roumen Gouninski, son of Roumen Gouninski who is a Bulgarian Socialist Party municipal councillor in the town of Pravets, 70km east from Sofia.

At about 8pm, Gouninski jnr, a student at the National Sports Academy, was walking his dog just outside the academy. He was accompanied by a friend when a white van pulled over and three men wearing masks attacked the duo in front of a number of witnesses. Gounevski' friend was beaten while Gounevski jnr was pulled into the van.

All that was left at the scene was the dog, Gounevski's mobile phone and one of his shoes.

Police are investigating. Unconfirmed media reports said that a ransom of a million euro has been demanded by the kidnappers.

The father Roumen Gouninski is in the business of tourism and the fuel trade. He has several fuel stations around Pravets and Blagoevgrad, working a franchise of Lukoil refinery.

According to Interior Ministry chief secretary Kalin Georgiev, the group who kidnapped Gouninski jnr was probably the same one that had been terrorising the public for several months.

The Gouninski kidnapping comes several months after Bulgaria was shocked by the kidnapping of two businessmen. The first one took place in April 2009 when businessman Kiro Kirov (70) was held hostage for 17 days in April and was released after his son paid a ransom of hundreds of thousands of euro.

Retired businessman Vene Sotirov (64) is still missing after he was kidnapped on April 16, while entering his home in a residential building in Souhata Reka borough.

In 2008, Angel Bonchev, former president of Litex Lovech football club, spent 50 days in captivity. Despite police efforts, his whereabouts remained unknown. He was released after his wife donated a large sum to a charity organisation.

Police have solved none of the cases.