Somali pirates hijacked a German tanker loaded with liquefied petroleum gas Thursday off the Horn of Africa. The ship's 13-man crew was reported safe even though gunshots were heard over the ship's radio. The MV Longchamp is the third ship captured this month in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The Longchamp, registered in the Bahamas, is managed by the German firm Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which said in a statement that seven pirates boarded the tanker early Thursday. Spokesman Andre Delau said the ship's master had been briefly allowed to communicate with the firm and had said the crew of 12 Filipinos and one Indonesian were safe. “We think that everything is in order, nobody is injured,” he told The Associated Press. No ransom demands have been made yet, the company said. Lt. Nathan Christensen, a Bahrain-based spokesman for the US 5th Fleet, said the ship was seized off the southern coast of Yemen.
