Somali pirates hijacked a yacht with four Americans on board Friday afternoon in the Indian Ocean, officials said.
Omar Jamal, first secretary at the Somali mission, identified the yacht as the S/V Quest.
He said Friday that the mission is calling for the immediate release of the hostages and all other captives who are in the hands of the pirates.
The Friday hijacking was first reported by Ecoterra International, which monitors regional maritime activity, according to the French news agency AFP. Ecoterra said the S/V Quest was seized 240 nautical miles (275 miles) off the coast of Oman.
Somali pirates hijack U.S. yacht
"S/V Quest was attacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean and the four Americans on board are being held hostage," AFP quoted Ecoterra as saying. "The sailing yacht was reportedly now en route from India to Mina Raysut, the industrial port of Salalah, Oman," Ecoterra added.
The S/V Quest's owners, Jean and Scott Adam, are seven years into their round-the-world journey from California, said gCaptain, a maritime website.
A December update on the SV/Quest website tells what their travel plans would be for 2011.
"The Quest started an 'around-the-world' trip in mid December of 2004 after sailing her to the States from New Zealand in 2002," the website says. "This is planned to be an eight or ten year voyage."
Jean Scott is a retired dentist who says on the website, which details their travels, she "has always had an interest in the biological sciences and the natural world around us all (otherwise known as God's creation)."
Despite Somali piracy being at its highest ever levels, with more than 40 ships and 800 seamen currently held according to Ecoterra, the U.S. couple made no reference to the threat on their website.
The yacht beacon's position is Mumbai but it was last updated six days earlier and a distress signal was sent from the middle of the Indian Ocean on Friday, AFP said.
Jamal said the hijacking raises "serious concern" as it follows the sentencing Thursday of a Somali pirate who kidnapped and brutalized the captain of a U.S.-flagged merchant ship off the coast of Africa in 2009. Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
Jamal said the mission again appeals to the international community to help curb the ever increasing acts of piracy.