Hanoi - Police in Vietnam have arrested five men accused of kidnapping an Australian man of Vietnamese origin and asking for a ransom of 36,000 dollars, police said Wednesday.

Police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested the men, aged between 21 and 36, on Monday night. They kidnapped Vietnamese Australian Tran Ngoc, 33, last month, according to Nguyen Thanh My, a senior investigation police officer of the city.

My said further investigation into the case was under way and declined to give further details.

Ngoc, a businessperson owning construction companies in Ho Chi Minh City and Cambodia, had been reportedly kidnapped and taken to a hotel in the city on June 22.

The kidnappers, led by Do Huu Cau, 35, then asked his family for a ransom of 600 million dong (36,000 dollars), according to Thanh Nien newspaper.

The newspaper said Ngoc was released the following day, after his family gave the gang some 11,000 dollars and two taels of gold. Ngoc reported the case to the police after he was released.

Under Vietnam's penal code, kidnapping in order to appropriate property valued more than 200 million dong (12,000 dollars) is punishable by between ten years and life imprisonment. (dpa)