Unidentified gunmen attacked Italian oil company Agip's offices in southern Nigeria Tuesday, sparking a gunfight that left seven people dead as militants claiming to hold four foreign hostages said the captives were in good health, The Assocaited Press reported. The Agip official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because company rules prohibit speaking with reporters, said gunmen raided the offices in the southern oil center of Port Harcourt before noon and that seven people whose identities remain unknown were killed in a ensuing gunfight with security forces. The attackers stole cash, said the official, who characterized the attack as a robbery saying that there was no evidence the attack was part of a spate of violence that has hit the oil-rich regions of Africa's largest petroleum producer. A rash of attacks and kidnappings in recent weeks have cut Nigeria's daily exports of 2.5 million by nearly 10 percent and claimed at least 20 lives while helping send crude prices higher on international markets. Meanwhile, militants claiming to hold four foreign hostages elsewhere in the oil-rich Niger Delta said the oil workers are in decent health but had been moved deeper into the region of swamps and creeks after the government failed to meet the captors' demands. --SP 20 56 Local Time 17 56 GMT
