A Maltese-flagged ship with Russian crew on board has been missing for 12 days after allegedly being hijacked last month.

The Finnish-owned cargo ship, the Arctic Sea, was meant to arrive at the Algerian port of Bejaia last Tuesday but failed to show up, Reuters reported.

It has not been heard of since July 28, when it communicated its plans to reach port.

The ship was last recorded off the coast of Portugal, according to a report by Russian maritime journal Sovfracht.

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

According to Bloomberg, Russia's navy and Federal Security Service are searching for the ship.

On July 31 the Malta Maritime Authority reported that the ship had allegedly been hijacked off Sweden the week before. It said several hooded and armed people in police uniforms arrived on a black dinghy and boarded the ship in the middle of the night on July 24.

Crew members were tied, gagged and blindfolded, with some seriously injured and claiming to have been aggressively questioned about drug trafficking. Later they were released and locked in cabins until the men rummaged through the vessel.

Originally called Okhotsk, the 4,700-tonne ship was built in 1991 and has a 13-strong Russian crew. According to data available at the end of March, it is operated by a firm based in the Russian port of Arkhangelsk.

Russian media has said that there were 15 crew members on board at the time of the incident and that the ship was transporting Finnish timber to Algeria.

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