Gunmen in the southern Philippines stormed early Tuesday a wood factory and seized two Filipino-Chinese workers a day after militants beheaded a Filipino school principal captive in the volatile south.

Oscar Lu, 51, and Michael Tan, 27, who work for the Hitech WoodCraft Corporation in the township of Maluso in Basilan Island, were taken by dozens of armed men, provincial deputy governor Al Rasheed Sakalahul told a local radio station.

The company's security guard engaged in a few minutes of gunfight with the perpetrators as they fled but there were no reported casualties.

"There's an ongoing manhunt operation. It could be another case of kidnapping for ransom," Sakahalul said.

Filipino police said another unidentified wood company employee was taken by militants along with two Filipino-Chinese caretakers.

No group has claimed responsibility for the incident but Philippine troops blamed Al-Qaida linked Abu Sayyaf in previous kidnappings in the region.

The 380-strong Abu Sayyaf group, founded in the early 1990s by Islamic extremists, is notorious for kidnappings, bombings and even beheadings in the South over the past decade. The group was blacklisted by Washington as a foreign terrorist organization.

A day before the incident, al-Qaida affiliated militants beheaded school principal Gabriel Canizares in the nearby province of Sulu.

Canizares, 36, principal of Kanague Elementary School, was abducted Oct.18 in the town of Patikul. The victim, along with some teachers, were on board a passenger jeepney.

The kidnappers initially demanded a 2 million pesos (42,000 U.S. dollars) ransom. But Sulu Governor Sakur Tan refused to pay the ransom and urged the kidnappers to release the victims.