Heavily-armed Somali pirates seized a Danish-managed general cargo ship with 13 crew off the coast of Somalia, a maritime watchdog said today.

Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, told AFP Somali pirates hijacked the ship on Friday at 1240 GMT in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia.