The abducted Peruvian workers, who began building a new gas treatment plant last year, were rounded up about 3 a.m. Monday from their hotels, Kepashiato’s mayor, Rosalio Sanchez, has said. The mayor said the rebels lingered for three hours, buying groceries and summoning about 20 residents to an assembly where they condemned the government and the natural gas industry.

Sanchez said people in the town fear the rebels could return and that as of Thursday there were no soldiers or police in the town.

“They could come back at any time. There’s no protection,’’ Sanchez told The Associated Press by phone.

Among the kidnapped workers, 29 were employees of the construction company Skanska of Sweden.

“There’s not that much I can say in regard to their safety. We’re cooperating with our client and the authorities there,’’ said Edvard Lind, Skanska’s spokesman in Sweden.

As for the company’s future projects in Peru, he said: “We see big opportunities in Peru, but right now we’re focusing on getting our colleagues released.’’

Such mass abductions are rare in Peru, and this week’s kidnapping showed a new brazenness from the Shining Path.

The cocaine-trade funded rebel band is a small remnant of the Maoist group that terrorized Peru in the 1980s and 1990s. It is believed to number about 300 to 500 fighters and is centered in the Ene and Apurimac Valley region where more than half of Peru’s coca crop is grown. The town where the kidnapping occurred is located in an adjacent region.