The abduction took place in the late evening on Monday in the Mus province of eastern Turkey, the army said in a statement on its website.

One of those kidnapped is a corporal from the Turkish gendarmerie, the branch of the armed forces that looks after public order.

The army gave no further details except to say that an investigation is underway. It said the abduction was carried out by the "Separatist Terror Organisation", its customary name for the PKK whose actual name it never uses.

Abductions of members of the Turkish armed forces were a regular event in the 1980s and 1990s, the height of the PKK's violent push for Kurdish self-rule that has lasted decades and cost tens of thousands of lives.

The level of unrest has fallen dramatically in recent years as the government seeks a final peace deal with the PKK.

However there have been sporadic spikes in violence in recent months as tension and suspicion plagues trust-building between the two sides ahead of June 7 national legislative elections.