NEW DELHI: India’s navy said Friday that its commandos had boarded a vessel in the Arabian Sea after a hijacking distress call, the latest attack on commercial shipping in the region.

Last month the force deployed several warships into the sea to “maintain a deterrent presence” after a string of recent shipping attacks, including a drone strike near India’s coast blamed on Iran by the United States.

It comes at a time when many vessels have been rerouted from the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels have carried out drone and missile attacks in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is battling Hamas.

The navy said it had “responded swiftly to a maritime incident in the Arabian Sea involving a hijacking attempt” of the MV Lila Norfolk, a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier.

The INS Chennai, a navy destroyer, had intercepted the vessel on Friday afternoon and a spokesman told AFP that commandos were in the process of ensuring it was “clear of any illegal persons who were reported on the vessel earlier”.

It did not give a more precise location of the vessel, which was last pinged by online marine traffic monitors off the coast of East Africa six days earlier.