Sri Lanka, April 25 -- Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker with 17 crew including a Sri Lankan that was sailing near the Somali coast, according to multiple security officials who spoke to the BBC.

The ship, Honour 25, was overrun late on Wednesday by six gunmen, when it was approximately 30 nautical miles offshore, the officials said.

Until three years ago piracy had almost disappeared in this stretch of the Indian Ocean once notorious for hijackings, but it has since made a comeback with fishing trawlers or container ships targeted.

The seizure of a tanker headed for the Somali capital, Mogadishu, is likely to increase anxiety in the city where petrol prices have already tripled since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran.

It was...