South African law enforcement officials have rescued an American missionary who was abducted by armed and masked men as he was preaching in the Eastern Cape province last week.

Three suspects were killed as the police moved in on a safe house where the pastor from Tennessee was being held.

Josh Sullivan, a U.S. pastor kidnapped at gunpoint while delivering a sermon in his church in South Africa Thursday evening has been rescued in a shootout that left three suspects dead, authorities say.