Officials have reported 26 crewmembers are on board the British-flagged chemical tanker St. James Park seized earlier by Somali pirates northeast of Seychelles, according to the EU anti-piracy operations Atalanta website.

The St. James Park tanker, owned by Philbox Limited, en route from Spain to Thailand was seized in the Gulf of Aden by Somali pirates on Monday.

The 26 crewmembers on board the vessel include six Indians, five Bulgarians, three Filipinos, three Turks, three Russians, two Ukrainians, two Romanians, one Georgian and one Pole.

Earlier on Monday a Panamanian-flagged bulk carrier, the Navios Apollon, owned by a Greek company with 19 crew members on board, was also hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia's coast on Monday.

The captain of the Navios Apollon is Greek, the remaining 18 sailors are Filipinos.

The vessel was sailing to India with fertilizer.

With these seizures, Somali pirates have scored a record number of attacks and hijackings for 2009.

As of December 22, attacks by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and the east coast of Somalia numbered 174, with 35 vessels hijacked and 587 crew taken hostage so far in 2009.

Worldwide there were 324 pirate attacks on commercial ships this year as of October 20, with 37 vessels hijacked and 639 hostages taken, according to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center.

MOSCOW, December 29 (RIA Novosti)