A Greek oil tanker carrying gasoil was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Togo early Tuesday, a spokesman for the ship operator told Dow Jones Newswires, marking another incident in a growing trend of piracy attacks in the Gulf of Guinea .

The operator said the incident was brought to their attention after a piracy center in Kuala Lumpur put out a distress call to highlight the attack.

The Isle of Man-flagged Energy Century at time of attack was carrying 24 crew, all Russian, and was loaded with 56,000 metric tons of gasoil.

Anti-piracy efforts helped slash attacks by a third in the first half of this year, though an alarming increase in incidents in the Gulf of Guinea helped offset declines in the major piracy hot spot offshore Somalia, the International Maritime Bureau said last month.

The IMB warned that the drop in Somali piracy was offset by a "disproportionate" increase in activity around the Gulf of Guinea , where 32 incidents were reported in 2012 compare with 25 in 2011.

It also said that attacks in this region were becoming increasingly violent, with guns reported in at least 20 of the 32 incidents.
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