An American pastor who was abducted in South Africa last week was rescued Tuesday after a dramatic shootout between police and his kidnappers, which left three suspects dead, the South African police said.

The pastor, Josh Sullivan, from Tennessee, was kidnapped on April 10 by four masked men as he was giving a sermon at the Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell, a township in the Eastern Cape province. He was then taken a few miles into the city of Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth, the police said in a statement, and held in a safe house — a gated, concrete building.

The police, after gathering intelligence, zeroed in on the house, said Lt. Col. Avele Fumba, a spokesperson for the South African Police Service. When they arrived, they found a vehicle outside the building with several men inside.

“Upon seeing the police approaching, we believe that they panicked, and started opening fire,” Fumba said.

A “high-intensity” gunbattle erupted and three suspects, whom the police have not identified, were killed, the police said.

— The New York Times