A cargo vessel came under attack by unidentified armed assailants off the coast of Yemen on Sunday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said.
UKMTO said it received a report of an incident about 55 kilometres south-west of Hodeidah after the ship issued a distress alert saying it was under attack.
Authorities launched an inquiry and advised vessels in the area to exercise caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO.
Earlier this month, a vessel reported being approached by a number of boats with several people on board bearing small arms, 140km south of the Yemeni port of Balhaf on Wednesday.
In a separate incident on Wednesday, UKMTO said it received a report of a small craft approaching a tanker operating 160km off Balhaf. The crews of the two ships were reported to be safe and their voyages continued.
Yemen's Houthi rebels disrupted shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from 2023 to 2025 with attacks they described as being in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. They have so far largely remained on the sidelines of the regional conflict that began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran in February.
The Red Sea, leading to the Suez Canal, is a crucial global shipping lane and during the Iran war has become the main alternative outlet for millions of barrels per day of Middle East oil sent by pipeline bypassing the Gulf.
On Friday, Houthi forces confronted Saudi “warplanes” that they said had attempted to prevent an Iranian civilian aircraft from landing at Sanaa International Airport, according to a statement by the group's military spokesman, Yahya Saree.
The Iran-aligned group warned it would target “Saudi airports and vital interests on land and sea” if the Saudis continued what Mr Saree called violations of Yemeni airspace. Flights between Sanaa and Tehran will continue despite any “possible consequences,” he added.
On the same day, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said an Iranian aircraft had arrived in Sanaa and flew the group's official delegation to Tehran to attend the funeral of Iran's late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Saudi Arabia led a military coalition that intervened in Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa.
On Saturday, the Saudi-led coalition said the statements by the Houthis against the kingdom were an attempt to “divert attention away” from the group's “violations” against the Yemeni people.
It warned that it would respond firmly and with “unprecedented force” to any attempts to target the kingdom or violations to Yemen's sovereignty.
