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Two British citizens have been reportedly kidnapped in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The pair are understood to have been taken while visiting the Virunga National Park, a renowned gorilla sanctuary in the east of the African country, on Friday.

According to local media, a female park ranger travelling with the tourists was killed.

The park has seen rising violence in recent months as armed groups attempt to steal resources like charcoal.

The park said five young rangers and a driver were killed in an ambush last month. It was the deadliest attack in recent years, taking the total number of rangers killed to 175.

Virunga is a Unesco world heritage site, covering 3,000 square miles on the DRC border with Uganda and Rwanda.

It is home to to around a quarter of the world’s critically endangered mountain gorillas and other endangered species as well as lions, elephants, hippos and a host of rare bird species.

The Foreign Office has issued warnings not to travel to large parts of the country.