MADRID- An armed group abducted two Spanish aid workers and an Italian from a Sahrawi refugee camp near Tindouf in western Algeria overnight, diplomatic sources in Spain and Italy said on Sunday.

One of those kidnapped may be injured, another aid worker who was at the Sahrawi camp told Spanish radio.

"The Sahrawi authorities have told us it was Al Qaeda people, but that's not saying much. It was a commando that was prepared. They were very clear about what they needed to do," Juan Bedialauneta told Cadena Ser radio. ?

The radio identified the two Spanish workers as Ainhoa Fernandez Rincon and Enrico Gonyans, while the Italian foreign ministry identified its worker as Rossella Urru from the Rome-based Comitato Italiano Sviluppo dei Popoli group.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975 and it has since become the subject of dispute between Morocco's government and an independence movement backed by neighbouring Algeria, where many Sahrawis live in refugee camps.