Berlin  - A freighter, described in one news report as a German-owned container vessel, has been hijacked by pirates off the Somali coast, the German Defence Ministry in Berlin said Sunday.

A ministry spokesman did not specify the ship's origin, the time it was captured, or who had attacked it.

The Spiegel Online website in Germany quoted Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, as saying it was a 20,000-gross-ton vessel. He did not give its name, but said it had a crew of 24.

It was seized about 400 nautical miles (about 750 kilometres) off the southern Somali port of Kismayo, between the Seychelles and Kenya, Spiegel Online said.

A week ago, German Navy units in the area thwarted an attempted pirate attack on a navy tanker in the Gulf of Aden and detained seven would-be pirates. dpa