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.

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

An American preacher who was taken hostage by armed men while preaching a sermon in a South African township last week has been rescued in a fierce gun battle with his kidnappers, police said Wednesday.