Nairobi - Around eight ships have been seized by pirates off the lawless Somali coast with gunfire being reported during one of the hijackings, an official said Monday.

"Around eight ships have been seized, but we believe there were no fatalities," Andrew Mwangura, the head of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"There was a shoot-out at one of the ships, but it was a quarrel between the gunmen," he continued. "We understand there were no injuries."

Earlier reports had suggested three sailors had been killed.

Mwangura said it was too early to give full details on all of the seized craft, but said that they were a mix of tankers and cargo ships.

Piracy off Somalia's lawless coast has surged in the last three months.

A total of four ships - from Germany, Japan, Iran and Malaysia - were seized last week alone.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) issued a fresh piracy warning for the region last week and called on international warships to help curb the rising trend.

"The situation in this region is grave," IMB Director Pottengal Mukundan said in a statement. "These pirates are not afraid to use significant firepower in attempts to bring vessels under their control."

The United Nations Security Council has approved incursions into Somali waters to fight piracy and coalition warships are believed to have intervened in two recent hijacking attempts.

Somalia's weak transitional government, currently engaged in countering a bloody insurgency, is powerless to stop the pirates from seizing ships and cashing in by demanding a ransom for the release of the ships and their crews.

Pirates, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, use speedboats to pursue their targets.

Somalia has been in a state of anarchy since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. (dpa)