Haitian gang members kidnapped 38 people on Friday as they were riding in minibuses headed west from the capital Port-au-Prince, the head of a drivers' association was quoted as saying by AFP.

"Two buses had just been filled with passengers bound for Miragoane," a town some 100 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince, "when the guys from Village de Dieu seized them," said Mehu Changeux, president of the association of owners and drivers of Haiti, referring to one of the capital's gang-controlled neighborhoods.