Seven raiders have been removed from a Gram Car Carriers vessel in Morocco.
Manager OSM of Norway said the 4,300-ceu Viking Diamond (built 2011) was targeted at Casablanca on Monday morning.
In a statement to TradeWinds, OSM confirmed that seven unauthorised persons were discovered on the ship at its berth.
"As per our standard operating procedures, the crew notified port authorities and after a sweep of the vessel, the seven persons was safely escorted off the vessel," OSM added.
"All Viking Diamond crew are safe and well and we are grateful to the port authority for their assistance."
The company added that the vessel has now resumed onward passage from Casablanca.
Raid repelled
MICT Online had earlier cited Moroccan reports as saying the robbers were armed with knives and sticks.
But they were rebuffed by the crew, including 20 Ukrainian seafarers.
Several of the attackers were arrested, the reports said. Some of the robbers were said to have escaped.
The ship is one of 19 in the fleet of Norway's Gram Car Carriers.
Morocco is not typically seen as a country with a piracy problem. The International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre does not list the country as a piracy-prone area but instead points to other countries in Africa, such as those around the Gulf of Guinea and Red Sea.
Vessel robberies are more usually associated with areas like Singapore, Indonesia and West Africa.
