Britain's honorary consul in the Ecuadoran port city of Guayaquil has been kidnapped, police said Saturday.

The abduction of Colin Armstrong comes amid a sharp rise in drug-related violence in parts of Ecuador.

Local media said Armstrong was kidnapped at dawn on a farm he owns in Baba, a small city in Los Rios province. There were no immediate details about his captors.

A message from the police on X said officers were carrying out "operational and investigative work" in connection with the case.

Neither the British embassy in Quito nor the Ecuadoran Foreign Ministry issued any immediate comment.