The incident happened in the Arabian Sea about 200 nautical miles south-west of Veraval in India, at 6:07 am UTC on Saturday, the UKMTO said in a social media post.

After the violent incident, the UKMTO advised vessels to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity.

According to the Ambrey analysis company, the attacked vessel could be a Liberian-flagged oil tanker, affiliated to Israel, whose ships were attacked in the past by Houthi rebels from Yemen, in support of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

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