Paris, Sep 23 (IANS) A French national was kidnapped in Algeria’s Tizi Ouzou region Sunday, the French foreign ministry said Monday.

“A French national was kidnapped on Sunday in Algeria, in the region of Tizi Ouzou, while he was on holiday there,” Xinhua quoted the foreign ministry as saying.

The incident came after the Islamic State (IS) Sunni extremist group threatened to attack France’s people and interests in response to Paris’s military operation against the militant group in Iraq.

“Nobody has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping,” it added, noting that “no hypothesis is excluded”.

In a separate communique, the ministry called on French expatriates, mainly in sensitive countries, to show more vigilance and follow the ministry’s travel recommendations to ensure their safety.

Earlier in the day, the IS group called on its followers to attack Americans and French citizens after Washington and Paris launched air strikes and destroyed the group’s targets in Iraq.

In a response to the threat, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve stressed France is not afraid as it is prepared to confront such threats.

Last week, French head of state Francois Hollande announced air support to quell Islamist militants at the request of Iraqi authorities, pledging further airstrikes to destroy IS targets in Iraq.