Those close to an elderly French woman speak of her kidnapping in Kenya on Saturday by suspected Somali militants.
Her boyfriend said he contemplated fighting the six armed men as they took the wheelchair-bound 66-year-old from this home on an island off Kenya's northern coast.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) PARTNER OF KIDNAPPED FRENCH WOMAN, JOHN LEPAPA, SAYING:
"This girl beseeched me to tell me stop because I wanted to cut one of them who was near to me and he is the one who shot at me when I was passing through this window (points)."
Her landlord said his staff pleaded with the gunmen to let her go.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) LANDLORD OF ABDUCTED FRENCH WOMAN, ABDALLAH FADHIL, SAYING:
"She (kidnapped woman) is a very good lady but unfortunately she is very sick. She's suffering from paralysis, she cannot move but she is a very brave lady, she still wants to live."
Somali pirates said the woman is being held in Somalia.
In September, gunmen killed a British tourist and kidnapped his wife from a nearby resort.
Lindsey Parietti, Reuters