Muscat: A cargo ship has been hijacked by Somali pirates off the coast of Oman, according to European Union Naval Force (EU Navfor) on Wednesday.
"The Bermuda flagged British Virgin Islands owned cargo ship MV Talca has been hijacked," a spokesperson for the EU Navfor told Gulf News.
It said that MV Talca was heading from Sokhna in Egypt to Busheir in Iran when it was hijacked on Tuesday.
"It had already passed through the International Recommended Transit Corridor, which is patrolled by warships and maritime patrol aircraft from EU Navfor, Nato, Combined Maritime Forces and other navies," EU Navfor told Gulf News in an email statement.
Twenty-three of the crew are from Sri Lanka, one from the Philippines and one from Syria.
Prior to the hijacking of MV Talca, a UAE-owned and Panamanian-flagged cargo ship, MV Al Mezaan, en route to Mogadishu, was attacked by pirates off the Somali coast. The attack was thwarted, however.
