Pirates kidnap five foreign sailors off Nigeria coast

Pirates stormed a cargo ship off Nigeria's southern coast and kidnapped five foreign sailors, including three Sri Lankans, taking the total number of those abducted from the region within the last four days to 14, a military spokesman said today.

Pirates operating in creeks and waterways of Nigeria's oil rich Niger Delta kidnapped the sailors in a raid, military spokesman Lt Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu said.

Nwachukwu said the sailors were aboard oil vessel, Antigua and Barbuda-flagged MV City of Xiamen.

The sailors, included three from Sri Lanka, one from Russia and one from Myanmar, media reports said.

The abduction took place in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa state in the southern part of the oil rich African country.