POLICE have confirmed an incident on board a vessel off the Isle of Wight following reports of an attempted hijacking of an oil tanker.

The tanker was due to dock in Southampton earlier today.

A Hampshire police spokesman said: “We are aware and dealing with an ongoing incident on board a vessel which is situated south of the Isle of Wight.

“We will provide you with further updates when we are in a position to do so.”

The Liberian-registered Nave Andromeda crude oil tanker is involved, Isle of Wight Radio said.

The Nave Andromeda had sailed from Lagos, Nigeria, on October 5, according to maritime tracking websites.

It is understood that the 228-metre tanker had been expected to dock in Southampton at 10.30am on Sunday.

Maritime Coastguard Agency and search and rescue helpicopters are reportedly at the scene.

A coastguard spokeswoman said: “We are currently assisting Hampshire Constabulary with an incident on board a vessel situated off the Isle of Wight.

“The search and rescue helicopters from Lee on Solent and Lydd are in attendance.”

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said it was aware of the incident.

Bob Seely, Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, said the incident would be treated as a “marine counter-terrorism” incident and a meeting of the government Cobra emergency committee would be held to discuss the response.

He said he expected specialist units to be scrambled to handle the situation.

He told Sky News: “Despite being told not to drop anchor, the skipper has dropped anchor and the ship may be now under the control of stowaways on the ship.

“I suspect because of the nature of this it will be treated as marine counter-terrorism and the number of people in the UK who do that are very limited and the relevant units will be looking at options no doubt as to what we could be doing.”

Mick Cash, general secretary of the maritime union RMT, said: “We urge the UK Government to do all it can to prevent any harm coming to crew or anyone else on the Nove Andromeda.

“This is a troubling incident which must not escalate to further jeopardise crew welfare or maritime safety in what is an extremely busy area for merchant shipping. We must call on all parties, including the Greek shipowner to take action to resolve this incident safely and quickly.”

A UK Chamber of Shipping spokesperson said: “We are aware of an incident onboard the Nave Andromeda off the Isle of Wight and are in contact with the relevant authorities.

“We believe it is likely to be related to stowaways onboard but are awaiting more information.”

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as we receive more information