KUALA LUMPUR: Another Greek chemical tanker with 19 crew on board has been hijacked by armed Somali pirates in the notorious Gulf of Aden, a maritime watchdog reported Saturday.

Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur said the tanker was hijacked on Friday while it was on its way to the Middle East from Europe.

“Somali pirates fired with machine guns and boarded the ship in the Gulf of Aden,” Choong said.

Last weekend a Greek-owned ship with 19 sailors on board, most of them Filipinos, was seized while a Malta-flagged Iranian oil tanker — a massive vessel the size of a football pitch — had a narrow escape after being pursued by pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

On Sept 18 the Greek ship “Centauri,” with 25 Filipino sailors on board was attacked off Somalia by pirates in a speed boat, armed with three rocket launchers.

Choong said since January Somali pirates have attacked 62 ships, with more than 300 crew held hostage on board the 15 ships under the pirates’ control.—AFP