Seized: Somali pirates hijack LPG tanker
Pirates hijack tanker in Gulf of Aden
Somali pirates on Thursday hijacked a German-owned tanker carrying liquefied petroleum gas in the Gulf of Aden, the third ship to be taken this year, a maritime group said.
"The MV Longchamp was hijacked this morning with a crew of 13 - 12 Filipinos and one Indonesian," Andrew Mwangura, of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, told Reuters.
It was not clear where the tanker, which was flying the Bahamas flag, was headed.
The tanker has a capacity of 3415 tonnes, Mwangura said.
Gunmen have been causing havoc in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, hijacking dozens of ships last year and making tens of millions of dollars in ransom payments.
The attacks have raised insurance costs, prompted some owners to go round South Africa instead of via the Suez Canal and triggered an unprecedented deployment by foreign navies.
That has lowered the frequency of successful hijackings, but there have still been three boats captured in January, showing the problem is far from eradicated.