'Pirates seize ship with 15 Indians off Tanzania'

Somali pirates captured a Panama-flagged ship with 15 Indian crewmen early Wednesday off the Tanzanian coast, a martime watchdog reported.

Somali pirates captured a Panama-flagged ship with 15 Indian crewmen early Wednesday off the Tanzanian coast, a martime watchdog reported.

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The MT Aspahalt Venture was sailing to South Africa from the Kenyan port of Mombasa, said Ecoterra International, an organisation monitoring maritime activity in the region.

Ecoterra said the vessel "is at present observed to have turned around and obviously is commandeered northwards to Somalia.

"Information from the ground says a pirate group... had captured the vessel and is heading towards Harardhere at the central Somali Indian Ocean coast," the group said in a statement.