Oslo: Pirates hijacked a chemical tanker that was travelling off the coast of Madagascar, the ship's Norwegian owner Broevigtank said.
"The captain of the ship called us early this morning and told us: we have pirates on board. Very quickly afterwards we lost all contact with the boat," company director Svenn Pedersen said on Friday.
The Marshall Island-flagged UBT Ocean had 21 crew on board, the NTB news agency said.
It was travelling from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates to the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam, it said. The vessel had taken a route well south of the zone where pirates operate, Pedersen added.
It appeared later to be northbound towards Somalia, he said, stressing that he did not know if the crew, whom he described as Asian without specifying nationalities, had suffered any injuries.
Norway's Foreign Ministry said it had been alerted of a Norwegian-owned ship being hijacked.
A spokesman said since the vessel was not Norwegian-flagged or had any nationals in the crew, Oslo would not have a major role in the evolution of the situation.
Somalia's marauding sea bandits hijacked 68 ships in 2009 and raked in an estimated 60 million dollars in ransom money.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, March 06, 2010, 11:37