A German humanitarian rescue ship said it was heading on Friday to the aid of a vessel run by a group of far-right activists who are at sea to disrupt the work of charity boats helping migrants in the Mediterranean. The Sea-Eye charity's founder Michael Buschheuer said the Italian coastguard had asked his ship to set course for the activists' C-Star vessel because it was in distress. The Identitarian group running C-star, however, denied on Twitter that the vessel was in distress but said it had alerted other vessels because its main engine had stopped due to "a minor technical problem". The Italian coastguard declined to comment. "C-Star is in distress and we are the closest, so at the moment we have set a course to reach them," Sea-Eye's Buschheuer told Reuters by telephone.