YAOUNDE -- No Chinese nationals were among the foreign sailors abducted off Cameroon, according to the Chinese embassy to Cameroon, contrarily to an early report by some media speaking of 9 Chinese hostages.

According to cross-checked information obtained by the Chinese embassy on Friday, unknown gunmen attacked two foreign cargos in Cameroon waters at 11:10 pm Wednesday local time, and kidnapped a dozen of sailors, none of them were Chinese.

The attack took place off the southern Cameroonian port city of Douala by "likely Nigerian pirates", a Cameroonian Navy source told Xinhua. Earlier on Friday, AFP quoted a Douala official as saying that a total of 17 people had been abducted, including "nine Chinese civilian sailors".

"The Cameroon navy is conducting a thorough search and rescue mission to secure the safe release of those kidnapped," a senior official of Douala Port Authority, who asked not to be named, told Xinhua.