The 22 crew members of a ship hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden are reportedly safe, an Indian Defence Ministry release said Wednesday.

The merchant tanker, owned by a Panamanian company and registered in Hong Kong, was hijacked on Monday with 18 Indian crew members, plus two Filipinos, a Russian and a Bangladeshi, the release said.

The vessel's last port of call was Suez after which it was scheduled to sail to the Indian west coast city of Mumbai.

The Indian Coast Guard's Mumbai-based Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre said 15 pirates had boarded the vessel about 38 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen.

"All crew onboard are reported to be safe and the vessel is being taken to Somalia," the Defence Ministry release said.

The MT Stolt Valor, with a capacity of 23,000 tons, is carrying a cargo of oil and chemicals.

There have been several recent incidents of pirates attacking merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden shipping lane, between Yemen on the south coast of the Arabian peninsula and Somalia in Africa, IANS news agency reported.