The British Foreign Office confirmed on Tuesday that five Britons were kidnapped from Iraq's Finance Ministry in Baghdad.

"We can confirm that a group of five British nationals were abducted in an incident at the finance ministry in central Baghdad, " said a spokeswoman for foreign ministry.

"Officials from the British embassy in Baghdad are in urgent contact with the Iraqi authorities to establish the facts and to try to secure a swift resolution," said she.

According to the Sky News, the group was snatched by up to 40 gunmen, some dressed in police uniforms, from the Finance Ministry which is outside the protected Green Zone. And among these, four were security workers from the Garda World Security Corporation, while the fifth was a client they were protecting.

On Tuesday afternoon, the British government's emergency response committee, Cobra, also met to discuss the incident.