A German diplomat was injured as he was escaping an apparent kidnapping attempt by unknown gunmen in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Monday, an Interior Ministry official said.

The gunmen driving a car tried to intercept the German diplomat 's vehicle on a road near the German embassy in Hadda area, the capital's heavily-secured diplomatic hub. But the German diplomat and his driver refused to stop and sped away as the gunmen opened fire and slightly injured the diplomat, the official said. The would-be kidnappers fled the area.

Reports of kidnappings are frequent in Yemen, where the security situation has worsened since 2011 after a political turmoil severely weakened the government control. Most of the kidnapped have been freed unharmed.

The government has blamed militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaida offshoot for a series of assassinations and armed attacks, mostly in the country's southern regions.