Pirates attacked a ship being used by an oil servicing company in the waters off southeastern Nigeria yesterday,  killing two Nigerian naval guards and kidnapping four foreigners, the Navy and the boat’s shipping firm said.

“An oil servicing company was attacked by gunmen. We lost two of our men and four expatriates were abducted, one Malaysian, one Iranian,” Navy spokesman Commodore Kabir Aliyu said, adding that a Thai and an Indonesian were also taken.

He said the attack took place around 33 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny, Nigeria’s main oil export terminal.

Netherlands-based Sea Trucks Group, whose boat Jascon was attacked, confirmed that four of its staff had been seized and that two other security guards were also wounded in the attack.

“The two remaining injured security personnel are now in Port Harcourt hospital for treatment,” spokeswoman Corrie van Kessel said in a statement.

“Sea Trucks Group is making every effort to find out where the kidnappers”.