Somali hijackers on Saturday said they had released a German ship and its crew which they had been holding for three months after being paid a ransom of 1.8 million dollars.

"We have released the ship and its crew overnight after receiving a ransom of one million and eight hundred dollars. It is free now and gone," Mohamed Abdi, a pirate in Eyl told AFP by telephone.

The hijackers did not name the ship but the only German vessel they were still holding was the Hansa Stavanger, seized on April 4, which had a crew of 24, including five Germans, one of them the captain.

Elders also confirmed the ship had been released but could not say about the ransom.

"The German ship was released overnight by the pirates and it moved but I don't know what has been paid to the pirates," Abdulahi Garaad Mohamed, an elder in Eyl said.

Somali hijackers attacked more than 130 merchant ships off Somalia last year, a rise of more than 200 percent on 2007, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre.

The world's naval powers have deployed dozens of warships to the lawless waters off Somalia over the past year in a bid to curb attacks on one of the world's busiest maritime trade routes.