The State Department is monitoring reports from the Philippine authorities that Elliot Onil Eastman was kidnapped Thursday night by gunmen. The department is coordinating with local authorities to navigate the investigation.

An American national was reportedly shot in the leg by a group of gunmen and kidnapped in the Philippines, prompting law enforcement officials to launch a search for the American, who was taken away by the unidentified suspects in a speed boat.

Four armed men shot and abducted a 26-year-old from Vermont in western Mindanao, the police said. He had been living in the area since May.

Philippines Police have started a search operation following the reported abduction of American national, Elliot Onil Eastman.

Elliot Onil Eastman, a 26-year-old American YouTuber from Vermont, was kidnapped by armed men in black from a coastal village in the Philippines on Thursday night, just months after marrying a local woman.

Footage shows the Muslim wedding of abducted American YouTuber Elliot Eastman, 26, to his wife Karisha Jala in the seaside town of Sibuco in Zamboanga del Norte province, the Philippines, in 2023. The pair exchanged religious vows and rings in a small ceremony attended by friends and family in the poverty-stricken area.