Femen, the controversial women's protest group which specialises in staging topless demonstrations, said three of its members were abducted last night shortly before yesterday's football match between Ukraine and France.

In an urgent release sent to supporters, Femen said the three activists complained of being followed by a group of men in the city of Donetsk. The group's headquarters in Kyiv lost contact with the women shortly after 4pm.

The abductions bear similarities to another incident in December last year when three Femen activists were abducted, beaten and threatened with mock executions after they protested in neighbouring Belarus. The activists were named as Alexander Shevchenko, Yana Zhdanova and Anna Bolshakova.

Calls to Femen went unanswered but in the statement the group said it was "terribly worried about the life and health of our activists".

Femen have used the publicity surrounding the Euro 2012 competition to highlight the plight of trafficked women forced to work in brothels.

- Jerome Taylor

Irish Independent

Via: independent.ie

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