A Turkish-flagged tanker with a 14-man Turkish crew was hijacked Wednesday by pirates off Yemen, the Anatolia news agency reported, quoting the Turkish maritime agency.
   
The agency received a message at 4:02 pm (1402 GMT) that the Karagol was "under attack from pirates as it was sailing 16 miles (25 kilometres) off the coast of Yemen," the report said.
   
The ship, owned by the Istanbul-based YDC Maritime company, was transporting 4,500 tonnes of chemicals to Mumbai in India when it was seized.
   
Ankara has requested help from a NATO naval force operating in the area against pirates to free the vessel, the agency added.
   
Karagol is the second Turkish-owned vessel to be seized in the Gulf of Aden in the past fortnight.
   
On October 29, armed pirates seized M/V Yasa Neslihan, a Turkish-owned ship sailing under the Marshall Islands flag, off Somalia as it was transporting 77,000 tonnes of iron from Canada to China.
   
Earlier this week, a representative from Yasa company, which owns the vessel, said pirates had demanded a ransom in return for the release of the ship and and its 20-man crew. He declined to reveal the sum sought.
   
Piracy is rife and well organised in the region where Somalia's northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal.
   
The pirates use speedboats and are armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. They sometimes hold ships for weeks until large ransoms are paid by governments or owners.
   
Last month, a maritime watchdog said Somali pirates were now responsible for nearly a third of all reported attacks on ships, often using violence and taking hostages.