Italian oil tanker hijacked, diverted to Somalia

The attack on the Savina Caylyn, the oil tanker, took place some 500 miles off the coast of India and 800 miles off Somalia, an Italian Navy spokesman said, 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. "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.

"The piracy crisis off Somalia is spiralling out of control -- seafarers are being tortured and executed," said Graham Westgarth, chairman of INTERTANKO, an association whose members own the majority of the world's tanker fleet.

"If the piracy situation is not dealt with, there is the potential for oil flows coming out of the Middle East Gulf, and between Asia and the West, to be disrupted," he told Reuters.

The Rome foreign ministry said the incident showed the need for "even greater international collaboration against piracy."