Two pirates were reportedly killed as the Chinese navy thwarted an attack against a UAE-controlled tanker amid a spike in Somali piracy.

Somali officials said another pirate was wounded during Saturday's armed hijacking attempt, while six others were wounded, according to the Voice of America.

While the report did not name the vessel involved or the "foreign navy" that came to the rescue, the Chinese People's Liberation Army news service reported that the country's naval forces rescued the 10,000-dwt chemical and products tanker Alheera (built 2001) after it came under pirate fire Saturday while transiting .

Hengyang to the rescue

The frigate Hengyang responded to the distress call and sent a shipboard helicopter to the scene, which drove away the suspects, according to the PLA Daily report, which did not mention any shots fired.

There were no injuries on the Alheera.

The Panamanian-flag ship is controlled by the United Arab Emirates-based Link Energy, a trading and shipping company owned by the government of Fujairah. The company could not be immediately reached for comment.

The attack is the latest in a resurgence in piracy off the coast of Somalia after a long lull. So far this month, there have been six armed attacks or hijackings in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, in addition to two suspicious approaches, according data from Asket, a London-based maritime security brokerage.

John Harris, Asket's managing director, tells TradeWinds that his company has been building its business for three years in anticipation that Somali piracy would flare up again as the lack of attacks over that time period led to complacency.

"These pirates have not gone away. They’ve never gone away," he said. "It’s a huge, immense business for them. So we were expecting this to happen."

He said that the big challenge in the region is that while demand for maritime security services in the Gulf of Aden, so too has the supply of high quality security teams.

The attack on the Alheera is the second in less than a week that drew the aid of the Chinese navy.

Both China and India rushed to help the 35,400-dwt bulker OS 35 (built 1999) when it was boarded by pirates last week.