Nairobi: Pirates seized a tanker and attacked a UN food ship that escaped, officials have said, the latest in a series of incidents off Somalia which have sparked worldwide concern.
Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur, told AFP yesterday that pirates boarded a Greek chemical tanker Friday at 1900 IST.
"Pirates attacked the ship flying a Panama flag using boats," he said, adding the tanker was hijacked in the notorious Gulf of Aden.
Greece's merchant marine ministry however denied the tanker was Greek, saying it had been informed that a Panamanian-flagged ship, carrying 17 Georgians and three Spaniards, had been boarded by pirates.
"We cannot completely rule out Greek involvement in the company that owns the ship, but for us it is not the case of a Greek vessel," the ministry's spokesman said.
On Thursday, pirates tried to board a World Food Programme (WFP) chartered freighter, MV Al Salaam, after it had offloaded food aid in the Somali capital Mogadishu, but it escaped, the agency said.
"The ship outran the attackers (and) was then escorted by the Canadian frigate -- Ville de Quebec -- until it arrived in Mombasa on Friday," WFP spokesman Peter Smerdon told AFP in Nairobi.
Such attacks have surged even with US warships and navies from other nations currently shadowing hijacked Ukrainian ship, MV Faina -- laden with 33 tanks and other arms -- anchored off the Somali fishing village of Hobyo, to prevent the pirates from offloading the cargo.
The pirates are demanding a 20-million-dollar ransom to release Faina and its 21 crew languishing in captivity since September 25.
