Local sources in Shabwa told the Yemen post that security forces launched a hunt for the kidnappers. "The security forces have stepped up their campaign this morning in the region believed that the kidnappers are found" the sources said.

Meanwhile, security source told media that two policemen were injured in a clash with the kidnappers at a checkpoint in Azzan district Shabwa province, when police tried to stop the car that carried the kidnappers and their hostages.

A local source said the abductors belong to the Laqmoush tribe in Shabwa, and that they were demanding the release of a jailed fellow tribesman accused of murdering a man from the same tribe in 1989.

Last month three German were taken hostage by tribesmen from the Bani Dhabyan tribe in Sana'a.

Angry tribesmen from poor areas in the country often take hostages to use it as a part to press the government for aid, jobs or the release of detained fellow clansmen. 

The kidnapping is the third involving foreigners and the second involving German nationals in about a month.