Gunmen abducted a French aid worker in the Afghan capital Monday and shot dead an Afghan man who tried to rescue him, the Kabul government said, in the latest of a series of attacks on foreigners here.

The abducted man was education specialist Dany Egreteau, 32, from Paris-based human rights group Solidarite Laique, who had arrived in Afghanistan on a visit a week ago, the group said.

Egreteau had been in the vehicle of another French charity, Afrane, and had tried to run after it was stopped by the gunmen, Afrane president Etienne Gille told AFP in Paris.

`Threatened by armed men, Dany Egreteau tried to escape on foot,` said Gille, rejecting statements by Afghan officials that the foreigners had been on foot.

There has been a series of kidnappings in the capital, mostly by criminal gangs seeking thousands of dollars in ransom, while three expatriates were shot dead last month, one in an attack claimed by Taliban insurgents.

The extremist Taliban group said however it was not involved in the kidnapping of the Frenchman.

The Afghan interior ministry said Egreteau was captured by three armed men as he was walking in the Kart-e-Parwan suburb near the city centre. A second foreigner escaped, witnesses said.

An Afghan man who tried to help was shot and killed as he scuffled with the gunmen, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashari told AFP.

The dead man was identified by his uncle as Malik, 26, a driver for a provincial intelligence department.

`My nephew tried to stop them abducting the foreigners,` said the uncle, Ghulam Hazrat, 50.

`He grabbed the gun of one of the kidnappers. The other shot him dead with five bullets. At this time one of the foreigners ran away and they put the other in the car, kicking him badly.`

Another witness said he had seen two foreign men running down a street and being followed by two armed men, with a third in a car behind them.

One had tripped and was grabbed by the kidnappers, said Hajatullah, 28, who lives in the area.

`A man stopped his car and tried to take the gun from one of the abductors. The second abductor opened fire and killed the man trying to help. The two forced the foreigner into the waiting car and disappeared,` he said.

There are hundreds of international aid organisations in Afghanistan trying to help the country recover from three decades of war.

An NGO security watchdog, ANSO, has said attacks against humanitarian groups are at their highest this year since the extremist Taliban regime was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

A dual national British-South African woman working with disabled children was shot dead in the capital last month.

The Taliban said the 34-year-old was killed because her organisation was preaching Christianity, a charge the group rejected.

Another South African and a Briton were shot dead by an Afghan guard last week as they arrived at work for their company, the international courier firm DHL.

The guard then turned the gun on himself. The interior ministry said it may have been a `terrorist attack` or the motivation may have been personal.

Kabul has seen several brazen attacks this year, including the storming of a five-star hotel in January, an attempt to kill President Hamid Karzai in April and July`s bombing of the Indian embassy which left about 60 people dead.