ANKARA (AFP)--Pirates Wednesday seized a Turkish cargo ship and its all-Turkish crew of 23 off the coast of Somalia, the Anatolia news agency reported, quoting the ship's owner.
The bulk carrier Horizon 1 was sailing from Saudi Arabia to Jordan with 33,000 cubic meters of sulfide when it was seized around 0530 GMT, media reports said.
"According to the information we received, there are three unarmed pirates on board the ship," Omer Ozgur, spokesman for Istanbul-based Horizon Maritime and Trade, was quoted by Anatolia as saying.
"They are holding a meeting with the ship's captain," he added. "There is nothing to worry about. There is no reason to fear for the crew."
The Horizon 1 was continuing on its course, albeit at a slower speed, followed by the Turkish frigate Gediz which has been deployed with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization naval forces in the region, Ozgur said.
Horizon Maritime had had no telephone contact with its ship, he added, and there is no immediate indication of a ransom demand.
Pirate attacks on shipping off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean have escalated since last year.
Last year three Turkish vessels were hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, with the last of them being released in February.