A missing merchant cargo ship with a Russian crew is now thought to have been hijacked.
The 'Arctic Sea' disappeared off the coast of France two weeks ago and is now somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, which officials say reinforces the likelihood that it has been hijacked.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered that Russian military ships join the hunt for the Arctic Sea.
The 4,000-tonne bulk carrier with a 15-strong Russian crew went missing shortly after passing through the Dover Strait between France and Britain late last month.
The Maltese-registered, Finnish-chartered, vessel was sailing from Finland to the Algerian port of Bejaia, where it was due to have docked on 4 August with a €915,000 load of timber.
'It would appear that the ship has not approached the Straits of Gibraltar, which indicates that the ship is headed out into the Atlantic Ocean,' the Malta Maritime Authority, which has been tracking the vessel, said in a statement.
Maritime experts say if the vessel has been seized by hijackers it is possible they intend to use it as an unregistered 'ghost ship', or pirates may be trying to test security levels in northern European waters, some of the world's busiest.
Britain's Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the Arctic Sea last made radio contact on 28 July as it entered the Dover Strait.
Shortly afterwards its transponder, which transmits an electronic location signal, was switched off.
The vessel's movements were last recorded on the AIS live ship tracking system off the coast of northern France on 30 July, although it has also been spotted off Portugal.
The Malta Maritime Authority said it received reports it was boarded by men posing as police in Swedish waters on 24 July.
