Somali pirates have hijacked a 20,000-tonne German container carrier in the Indian Ocean, a Kenya-based maritime official said yesterday. "The ship was taken yesterday far out at sea, around 400 nautical miles from the Somali coast, between Kenya and the Seychelles," said Andrew Mwangura, of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme. He believed the ship had a crew of around 24 and may have been sailing under a flag of convenience. The number of attacks by Somali pirates and their success rate had dipped since the start of the year, due to an increased global naval presence in the Gulf of Aden and unfavourable seas. But some pirate groups have ventured southeast of Somalia to target ships further out at sea.