Three people have been abducted by pirates from a ro-ro ferry off Gabon, West Africa.
Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade-Gulf of Guinea (MDAT-GoG) had issued an advisory notice for a hijacking off Port-Gentil on Saturday.
It has since been reported that the vessel was moved by the gunmen towards Nigeria, but released on Monday.
Security consultancy Ambrey said the ship was the 1,000-gt Equatorial Guinea-flag Elobey VI (built 1975).
It was underway from Bata, Equatorial Guinea, to Annobon in the same country.
The Equatorial Guinean Ministry of Defence said the pirates abandoned the vessel within 2.1 nautical miles (4 km) of Nigeria's Okwori terminal exclusion zone.
As the gunmen left, they reportedly kidnapped three people: two Moroccans and one Equatorial Guinean national.
In addition, four other "hostages" were seen on the pirates' speedboat. It has not been confirmed whether these were some of the seven Ukrainian crew kidnapped from the 957-teu feeder boxship MSC Talia F (built 2015) on Sunday.
The ro-ro has since proceeded to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, under naval escort. Equasis lists its ownership as unreported following a sale in 2011.
The MSC Talia F, which is owned by Technomar Shipping, was attacked 74 nautical miles to the north, en route for Libreville, Gabon.
It conducted evasive manoeuvres and increased speed, but was subsequently boarded.
