MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. Pirates have taken seven Russian sailors and one Ukrainian hostage in the territorial waters of Nigeria, the Russian embassy said on Wednesday.

"The BBC Caribbean ship came under a piratic attack in the territorial waters of Nigeria," the Russian embassy said on its Twitter page. "Seven Russian citizens and one Ukrainian citizen have been kidnapped from the ship. The Russian embassy has asked the Nigerian authorities for assistance in establishing the whereabouts of the abducted."

The embassy’s spokesman Artyom Romanov said that "all necessary measures are being taken to find out where the kidnapped Russian sailors are at the moment."