Yemen authorities have accused a Shia rebel group of kidnapping nine foreigners in the country’s north.
The interior ministry said the foreigners were kidnapped on Friday by a rebel group led by Abdel Malak al-Hawthi, while on a picnic in northern Sada province.
However, the group said the Yemeni government was trying to tarnish their image.
"We have never kidnapped foreigners and have no information about the group at all," said a spokesman for the group.
The Yemeni interior ministry said the foreigners, who it did not identify, were kidnapped while on a picnic in northern Sada province.
Local Yemenis in Sada said the group included a German doctor, his wife and five children, as well as a Briton and his wife. But they could not confirm they were kidnapped because no group had claimed responsibility. They suggested the group might have lost its way or had an accident.
The foreign ministry in Berlin confirmed that seven Germans are missing in Yemen. The ministry has organised a crisis team to deal with the matter and the German Embassy in Yemen is in contact with local authorities, it said.
The state news agency Saba said the foreigners worked in a hospital in Sada.
Tribesmen in Yemen frequently take foreigners hostage to pressure the government on a range of demands and generally release them unharmed.
Tribesmen on Friday freed 24 local and foreign medics working at a Saudi-funded hospital in Sada less than 24 hours after their kidnapping, which was not carried out by the al-Hawthi group.
Thousands of people have been killed in Sada since a Shiite rebellion erupted there in June 2004. The rebels say the government is corrupt and too closely allied with the West. The government has charged al-Hawthi with sedition, forming an illegal armed group and inciting anti-American sentiment.
The group negotiated a fragile cease-fire with the government last year, but serious tension remains.
AP