Brit mum ‘kidnapped on faculty run’ has been rescued by police as ‘hero’ officer shot

Nusrat Osman, a British mother-of-two who is believed to be from Leicester, has been rescued in a major police operation after she was kidnapped while on the school run

A British woman who was kidnapped in the southern African nation of Malawi last week has been rescued, police said Thursday (September 17).

Nusrat Osman was reportedly taken on the school run in the Mount Pleasant area last Friday (September 11) with no clear motive.

After a reward was offered and days since she was taken, police have now confirmed that Osman has been successfully rescued in a major operation that saw an officer shot.

Inspector General Richard Luhanga, the head of the Malawi police, told The Associated Press that 47-year-old Osman was safe but declined to give more details. He said police would issue a statement later on the rescue operation.

Osman’s brother, Shobi Jiwa, told Malawi news outlet Nation Online that she was rescued in an operation in which Luhanga’s deputy inspector general was shot and wounded.

According to the Daily Mail, Deputy Inspector General of Police Noel Kayira was the officer shot during the operation. He reportedly survived the incident and is said to be stable. It was not immediately clear if police had made any arrests.

Speaking before she was found, Jiwa described how four armed men dragged Osman from her car before taking her away.

The mother-of-two who reportedly works for a local auditing firm, was abducted around lunchtime on September 11 in a neighbourhood of the southern city of Blantyre. It believed that she is originally from Leicester.

Malawi police had said they were looking for four men who had used a grey car to kidnap her. The motive was not clear, police said, and the suspects had not contacted Osman’s family or authorities.

Authorities had offered a reward of about $17,000 for information leading to Osman’s rescue and the arrest and conviction of the kidnappers.