A cargo ship laden with 35,000 tonnes of wheat and manned by 25 crew members, including some Indians, was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden late on Tuesday night, a shipping union official said in Mumbai on Wednesday. National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) spokesman Sunil Nair said that as per latest reports available with it, the crewmen also include some from Iran and the Philippines.

“We are in touch with the concerned maritime authorities but so far we do not have the exact number of Indians and other details of the ship,” Nair told IANS.

He said that Somali pirates hijacked the ship, bearing a Hong Kong flag, bound from Hong Kong to Iran's Bandar Abbas port, on Tuesday night.

The ship is now anchored somewhere near Somalia under the control of the pirates, Nair said.