SEOUL, Nov 16: Gunmen hijacked a freighter with 23 crew members off the coast of Somalia, said South Korea on Sunday, as Somali pirates freed another vessel after securing a ransom and a Russian frigate repelled an attack on a Saudi ship.

Pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia have surged in the past week, with at least five successful hijackings since Nov 7, according to news reports and figures from the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting centre in Malaysia.

Somali pirates are trained fighters, often dressed in military fatigues, using speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. They are typically armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank rockets launchers and various types of grenades.

Along with the Russian frigate and Indian vessels, a Nato flotilla of seven ships is in the Gulf of Aden to help the US 5th Fleet in anti-piracy patrols and to escort cargo vessels.

The 5th Fleet said it has repelled about two dozen pirate attacks since Aug 22 in the gulf, which connects the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and is one of the world’s busiest waterways with some 20,000 ships passing through it each year.

In the latest hijacking, a 20,000-ton ship carrying unidentified chemicals was seized on Saturday night, South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The crew of the Japanese-owned Chemstar Venus consisted of five South Koreans and 18 Filipinos, the statement said. South Korean officials said they had no information on the condition of the crew or whether the gunmen were seeking a ransom.

The foreign ministry said it would cooperate with Japan’s government and the shipping company to win the early release of the sailors.

On Sunday, Somali pirates released an earlier-seized cargo vessel with 18 Indian crew members after being paid a ransom, Indian officials said.—AP