Nairobi- Pirates on Thursday hijacked a German-owned tanker carrying liquified petroleum gas off the coast of Somalia, a maritime official said.

"The German-owned LPG tanker MV Longchamp was seized on Thursday morning," Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "She was sailing from Europe to the Far East."

The ship, which has a capacity of 3,415 tonnes, was fully loaded when it was taken, Mwangura said.

Mwangura said the ship, owned by Hamburg-based Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement, was flying a Bahamas flag and had a crew of
12 Filipinos and one Indonesian.

The MV Longchamp is the third vessel to be seized off Somali this year, which despite a decrease in the number of hijackings due to the presence of international warships remains a dangerous place for ships. (dpa)