Gunmen wearing masks and firing in the air burst into a spa hotel in Dar es Salaam on Thursday and kidnapped Tanzania’s only billionaire, according to officials in the coastal city.

Mohamed Dewji, a Tanzanian Asian tycoon believed to be Africa’s 17th richest man, was seized shortly after arriving at the gym of the Colosseum Hotel Oyster Bay, one of the former capital’s most affluent suburbs.

Police said that three foreigners had been detained in connection with the kidnapping.

The bizarre and often conflicting details of the abduction of a figure so prominent he was known by most Tanzanians simply as “Mo” left many in the country baffled.

Paul Makonda, the powerful regional governor and a close ally of President John Magufuli, told reporters that Mr Dewji was kidnapped “by whites travelling in two vehicles.”

Witnesses outside the hotel, however, only spoke of one vehicle and none mentioned the colour of the assailants.