20110208
xinhua

ROME/LONDON (Reuters) - Pirates firing guns and rocket propelled grenades hijacked an Italian oil tanker in the Indian Ocean on Tuesday and diverted the medium-sized vessel towards Somalia, Italian Navy and European Union officials said.

Seaborne gangs are making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, and despite successful efforts to quell attacks in the Gulf of Aden, international navies have struggled to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean owing to the vast distances involved.

Ship industry associations have warned that over 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil supply passing through the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea was at high risk from better equipped Somali pirates, who are able to operate further out at sea and for longer periods using mother ships.

The attack on the Savina Caylyn took place some 500 miles off the coast of India and 800 miles off Somalia, an Italian Navy spokesman said on Tuesday, adding that no-one among the crew of 17 Indians and five Italians was reported hurt.

"It is heading west, in the direction of Somalia," Commander Paddy O'Kennedy, spokesman for the European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) said later on Tuesday. "This is what we expected at this stage."

EUNAVFOR said the vessel was boarded early on Tuesday after a sustained attack by one small high speed craft known as a skiff with five pirates firing small arms and four rocket propelled grenades.

An Italian navy frigate was heading to the scene but was some 600 miles away.

Responding to the growing threat, London's marine insurance market has expanded the stretch of waterways deemed high risk from seaborne raiders to include the Gulf of Oman and a wider stretch of the Indian Ocean.