The pirates attacked the ship that was sailing towards the France off Naples. Italian special forces are in the process of intervening.
The ship is a Turkish-flagged roll-on/roll-off vessel, Galata Seaways. It departed Topcular in Turkey on June 7 for Sète in southern France, where it was due to arrive Saturday with 22 crew members. The unknown number of armed men threatened and "sequestered" the crew in the command cabin. The number of attackers is undetermined.