Maltese-flagged ship disappears

A Maltese-flagged cargo ship that was allegedly hijacked last month has now been missing for 12 days.

The Finnish-owned Arctic Sea, which was being operated with a Russian crew, was last recorded off the coast of Portugal, the Russian maritime journal Sovfracht reported.

The ship failed to arrive at the Algerian port of Bejaia on August 4 as planned and the last communication with it was on July 28.

"On July 28, the ship literally disappeared - no communication, no data on its location, not from the owners, nor relatives, nor Lloyds," the website states.

The Malta Maritime Authority had reported on July 31 that the ship was allegedly hijacked off Sweden.

It had said that several hooded and armed people in police uniforms on board a black dinghy which also bore the word Police boarded the Arctic Sea and tied, gagged and blindfolded the crew, seriously injuring some of them.

Crew members were then released from their bindings but were locked in cabins until the "police" rummaged through the vessel.

The Maltese authorities took the incident with the Swedish authorities who said they were not involved in any way in the operation and then referred the case to the Swedish police.

The 4,700-tonne ship, originally called Okhotsk, was built in 1991, has a Russian crew of 13 and is operated by a firm based in the Russian port of Arkhangelsk, according to data at the end of March, the site states.

Some of the earlier quoted reports in the Russian media stated there were 15 crew at the time of the boarding, and that the ship was transporting Finnish timber to Algeria.