Son of Italian Banker kidnapped and freed soon

An Italian teenager was abducted from his family's home in eastern Sardinia but freed a few hours later on Friday, police said.

Davide Arra, 17 and the son of a bank manager, was snatched in the middle of the night from the home on the island's eastern coast, said Fabrizio Mustaro, a police official in the Sardinian town of Nuoro.

The kidnappers demanded a ransom. Authorities were alerted at about 8 a.m. (0600 GMT) and set up checkpoints, searching the area by car, foot and helicopter, Mustaro said.

Officials also froze the assets of Davide's family. Under Italian law, the assets of relatives of kidnap victims are frozen so that the family cannot pay a ransom, Mustaro said.

The kidnappers released Davide at about 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from where he had been kidnapped, Mustaro said. The boy, who was unharmed, reached the house of an acquaintance and called his father.