It was about 5pm on Saturday afternoon when rumours began to spread that someone had been kidnapped. Barrancas in northern Colombia is a small town so news travels fast.

“My phone beeped, my wife’s phone beeped, my son’s phone beeped. All pretty much simultaneously,” local resident, José Hernández told the Telegraph. “So we knew something was up.”

The parents of Liverpool left-winger, Luis Diaz, had been abducted from a petrol station as they stopped to fill up their car. His mother was rescued hours later, but his father remains missing.

“Everyone’s in shock,” said Mr Hernández, a friend of the couple. “This just doesn’t happen here.”

That shock has reverberated across the country.

Almost a year since the government embarked on a controversial, soft-touch “total peace” gang-crime strategy, murder and kidnapping rates are once again on the rise.

The Colombian government has launched a major military search operation to find Luis Manuel Diaz, mobilising elite police officers, as well as more than a hundred soldiers specially trained in hostage rescue missions. Helicopters and planes equipped with heat-seeking cameras have also been deployed to scour the jungle for the footballer’s father.

Like most places in Colombia, Barrancas, a hot and dry place in the La Guajira desert region, has a painful past.

But more recently the town has enjoyed a sharp rise in tourism, not least because of its connection to the Liverpool star.

CCTV footage broadcast by local television shows men on motorbikes following his parent’s car just before they were abducted.

“Something like this is not spontaneous, it is planned,” Alejandro Zapata, deputy director of the national police, said in a press conference. “But we know who they are.”

On Monday, police confirmed they had identified a number of individuals linked to the kidnapping, but no names have been released for operational reasons and, so far, no warrants have been issued.

£40,000 reward for information

Security camera footage released by the police shows two of the suspects they believe to be responsible. Authorities are offering a £40,000 reward for information.

Eyewitnesses to the kidnapping told The Telegraph that Mr Diaz’s parents were threatened with guns. They were driven off in their own vehicle, which was found 90 minutes later, seven miles away. The kidnappers had swapped cars, taking Diaz’s father with them, but leaving his mother behind.

“She was in good health, but obviously very distraught,” said Emiro Bonilla, the acting mayor of Barrancas. “We think they left her behind in an attempt to keep the police off their tail.”

Luis Manuel Diaz and Celina Marulanda are well known and much loved in this small town of 40,000 people. Luis Manuel, affectionately called “Mane” by most people, trains young footballers.

Eight-year-old Jesus Arbeláez is one of them.

“We want our teacher back,” he said, accompanied by his mother.

On Tuesday, residents of the town held a candlelight vigil to demand the safe return of Luis Manuel Diaz. Hundreds of people marched through the streets chanting “freedom”.

“Mane is a noble person,” said Mr Hernández. “He’s one of us. He’s helped the kids of this town. Now we need to help him.”

The geography of the region is hampering rescue efforts.  Authorities say the kidnappers drove off through the Perijá mountains, which straddle the Colombia-Venezuela border. It is dense and difficult terrain, providing the perfect cover for criminal activity. 

There are a number of organised criminal groups involved in smuggling and people-trafficking on both sides. A family friend told local media that the couple had received threatening calls demanding extortion before Saturday’s kidnapping.

Fears he may be taken across border

Military sources told The Telegraph that they were in a rush to find Mr Diaz because they feared he might be taken across the border.

The incident has stoked fears of increasing insecurity in Colombia, where such kidnappings were becoming less common until a surge in the past 12 months.

As part of its controversial “total peace” strategy, the Colombian state is negotiating with organised criminal structures and gangs in order to encourage their demobilisation.

But just more than a year into the programme, researchers say it has allowed Colombian criminal groups to grow in strength. Crimes such as murder and kidnapping have increased as a result.

“We’re at a critical crossroads,” said analyst, Maria Victoria Llorente. “The government’s ‘total peace’ strategy is not achieving the results it set out to achieve, so we need to reassess it.”

At the football club in Barrancas founded by Luis Manuel Diaz - and where his son played as a child - some 200 young footballers have suspended their training. The football pitch in the town’s Villa Luz neighbourhood has been taken over by helicopters from Colombian special forces.

The young players, clad in their football kits as a mark of respect, look on defiantly.

“Mane is like our dad,” says 10-year-old Rafel Pinto. “We won’t play again until he’s back with us.”