A ship put up for auction to help her crew recover £670,000 in unpaid wages has been withdrawn from sale.

The Malaviya Seven was detained in Aberdeen last October when it emerged her crew had not been paid in months.

After languishing in port for a year they won the right to sell the ship in court and on Tuesday she was put up for auction.

The Seven only received a single £300,000 bid, however, less than half what the crew is owed.

Estimates put the supply ship's sale value at between £850,000 and £1.1m.

The six sailors still aboard the Malaviya Seven had hoped to return to India within weeks of its sale.

Auctioneer Dominic Daly said he will try to negotiate a better deal with the sole bidder.

Twenty-four past and present crew of the Malaviya Seven are due money and several have been forced to take out loans to support their families.

The Malaviya was detained twice in Scotland last year over unpaid wages.

It was first held in June while contracted to BP and was released after the crew were paid.

It returned to Aberdeen under a different contract two months later and was detained on identical charges.

Foreign sailors working in the North Sea were owed more than £1m in unpaid wages last year alone.