Some 300 military personnel and police officers will be sent to the department of Ayacucho, 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of Lima, in a bid to rescue the workers taken hostage there.

Heavily-armed gunmen in Ayacucho kidnapped around 60 workers from Techint, an Argentine firm building a gas pipeline in southern Peru. The kidnappers demanded one million dollars for the hostages' release and threatened to kill them if there was a rescue attempt, according to a police statement read on national television.

The kidnappers also wanted 500 boxes of explosives, percussion caps, fuses, 60 field radios and medicines, including antibiotics, according to the statement.

Defense Minister Aurelio Loret de Mola said in a statement Monday that the government "has taken the necessary steps to free the kidnap victims, ensuring their physical well-being and their lives."

With interests from steel to oil and gas and health care, the Techint Group comprises more than 100 companies worldwide with about 42,400 permanent workers and total sales of 7.8 billion dollars, according to the company website.

WAR.WIRE