A South Korean cargo vessel has narrowly escaped being hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and its crew has been confirmed safe.

The Foreign Ministry in Seoul says commandoes of South Korea's Cheonghae naval unit boarded the Hanjin Tianjin at around 7:05 on Thursday evening and found all its crew members safe in the ship's citadel.

A ministry official said that the crew escaped the pirates' hijacking attempt by taking refuge in the citadel. He said the pirates likely occupied the vessel for a while, noting three live rounds of AK rifle ammunition were found along with a number of footprints presumed to belong to the pirates.

The 75-thousand-ton container vessel was sailing from Spain to Singapore when it was attacked by pirates in waters some 740 kilometers east of Somalia at around 5:15 a.m. on Thursday. Fourteen South Korean and six Indonesian crew members were on board the ship.

South Korea's Choi Young destroyer, which was operating in the Gulf of Aden as part of an international fleet policing sea routes in the area, was ordered to the site of the attempted hijacking at around 5 p.m.

The Foreign Ministry official said that a Lynx helicopter from the destroyer flew over the ship before members of a special operations team stormed the ship's steering house and confirmed the safety of crew members who were hiding in the ship's citadel.