Five Britons have been kidnapped from the Iraqi finance ministry in Baghdad, BBC reported, citing unconfirmed information.
They included four bodyguards and a finance expert, earlier reported to be German.
"We are aware of reports that a group of Westerners have been kidnapped. We are urgently looking into them," the UK foreign office said.
According to the BBC the missing security guards are all believed to have been working for the GardaWorld security agency.
Their abducted client was thought to be advising the Iraqi finance ministry.
It was no immediately clear how the abduction happened.