An American pastor has been kidnapped by armed men after they stormed his church service in South Africa, local authorities say. Josh Sullivan had been conducting a service at Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell, a township in Gqeberra in the Eastern Cape, on Thursday evening when "four armed and masked male suspects entered", police spokesman Captain Andre Beetge told the BBC. The men stole two phones before fleeing the church in the 45-year-old pastor's silver Toyota Fortuner. Police later found the vehicle abandoned, but there was no trace of Mr Sullivan. A spokesperson from the US State Department told the BBC that they were aware of the kidnapping of a US citizen in South Africa. They said there was no "greater priority than the safety and security of US citizens abroad". Capt Beetge told the BBC the case had been handed to South Africa's elite police unit, known as the Hawks, which investigates serious organised and commercial crimes and high-level corruption.