Somali Pirates: One ship confirmed hijacked, another "gone silent" but suspected

BBC News report here:

Two cargo ships are suspected to have been hijacked by pirates in the Arabian Sea, officials say.

Hanjin Tianjin

A South Korean warship is racing towards the scene where the 75,000-tonne Hanjin Tianjin lost contact after emitting a distress call.

An Italian vessel, the Rosalia D'Amato, is confirmed to have been seized about 650km (400 miles) off Oman's coast.

EUNAVFOR report on Rosalia D'Amato here:

Early morning on 21 April, the Bulk Carrier MV ROSALIA D’AMATO was pirated approximately 350NM South East of Salalah, Oman, in the Indian Ocean.

Rosalia D'Amato

The 74,500 tonne Italian flagged and owned vessel was on its way to Bandar Imam Khomeini (Iran) from Paranagua (Brazil) when it was attacked by a single skiff. Coalition warships had communications with the vessel and were told: ‘pirates onboard stay away’. The MV ROSALIA D’AMATO has a crew of 21(6 Italians, 15 Filipinos). There is no further information about the crew at present.

NATO reports from here:

Reported hijack location

April 21, 2011
Latitude 13 17N 05906E
Alert Number 156 / 2011
---ALERT UPDATE---
Reference previous Alert Number 155 / 2011
At 0205 UTC / 21 APR 2011 / A merchant vessel was reported under attack by pirate action group consisting of 1 dhow and 2 skiffs.
***This vessel has been hijacked***
the Pirate Action Group is still in the area.
______________________________________
April 21, 2011
Longitude 13 17N Latitude 059 06E
Alert Number 155 / 2011
---WARNING WARNING WARNING---
At 0205 UTC / 21 APR 2011 / a merchant vessel is currently under attack by pirates / 1 skiff.

Report on suspected Korean hijack here:

A South Korean container carrier, which lost contact with its owner company in pirate-infested waters off Somalia earlier Thursday, appears to have been hijacked, a foreign ministry official here said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae made the remark in a media briefing following media reports that the 75,000-ton Hanjin Tianjin with 14 South Korean sailors aboard was captured by pirates after being attacked several hundred kilometers off the Somali coast.

Declining to give details for operational reasons, Cho said that a South Korean warship in nearby waters was sailing toward the vessel, which has been floating still since it last made contact with its company in South Korea early Thursday morning.

The Panamanian-registered ship owned by South Korea's Hanjin Shipping Co. was also carrying six Indonesians, ministry officials said, adding it was sailing from Spain to Singapore when it logged its last contact about 460 miles off the Somali coast.

If confirmed hijacked, the ship will mark the first such case since a South Korean naval operation that rescued South Koreans from a hijacked 11,500-ton chemical carrier three months ago.

Rosalia D'Amato photo from Shipspotting.com by Maxi Alonso and used in accord with terms of that site.