TIMELINE - Two French security workers kidnapped

(Reuters) - Somali gunmen stormed into a hotel on Tuesday in the capital Mogadishu and kidnapped two French security consultants, witnesses and officials said.

Here is a timeline of some recent kidnappings of foreigners in Somalia:

April 2008 - A Briton and a Kenyan working on a U.N.-funded project were seized by gunmen and taken to Jilib town, 280 km (175 miles) south of Mogadishu. They are still being held.

May - Jolanda Occhipinti and Giuliano Paganini were abducted on May 21 at the offices of the Rome-based group Cooperazione Italiana Nord Sud. They were freed on August 5.

August - Amanda Lindhout, a Canadian freelance reporter, and Nigel Brennan, a freelance Australian photojournalist were kidnapped in Mogadishu. Somali journalist, Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, who was working as their interpreter, was also kidnapped. Elmi was released in January 2009.

September - Two Western aid workers from Medecins du Monde were kidnapped at the border village of Laas Caanood on September 22 and taken to Gurael, 500 km (300 miles) north of Mogadishu. The Japanese doctor Keiko Akahane and aid worker from the Netherlands Willem Sools were released on January 7, 2009.

November - Gunmen stormed an air strip near Dusamareb town on November 5 and kidnapped a number of aid workers. French-based Action Contre La Faim charity confirmed four of its people were taken. The EU said two Kenyans, two French, a Bulgarian and a Belgian national were among those kidnapped.

November - Two journalists, Briton Colin Freeman, a correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph, and Spanish freelance photographer Jose Cendon, are kidnapped in the northern province of Puntland. They were freed in January 2009 without a ransom being paid.

April 2009 - A Belgian doctor and Dutch nurse working for MSF, seized on April 19 in the central Bakol region, where the pair had been carrying out a nutrition study, were freed on April 28. The gunmen had initially demanded a ransom of $1 million (614,000 pounds), then increased it to $4 million. A Bakol elder involved in the talks said that no ransom had been paid.

July - Somali gunmen stormed into the Safahi hotel in Mogadishu and kidnapped two French security consultants working for the government.