Malaysia

Crew thwarts attack

The crew of a product tanker used fire hoses, flares and searchlights to thwart the attempts of pirates to board their ship in the Strait of Malacca last week.

For thirty minutes the ship's crew fended off the pirates, who were in two high speed boats, as the ship sailed in 05^o 05.5'N, 098^o 28.7'E early last Saturday.

The crew's persistence and an increase in the vessel's speed eventually forced the pirates to abort their attempt and flee the scene of the attack.

Four crewmembers aboard a general cargo ship were not so fortunate. They had to be hospitalized after their ship was attacked at Freetown anchorage off Sierra Leone.

Ten gun-totting robbers opened fire at the ship before boarding it using hooks and holding the crew at gunpoint while they stole their belongings.

The robbers left the ship at about 05:00 local time, but not before the master managed to contact port control. But it was another two hours before officials boarded the ship.

On 7 August five robbers boarded a chemical tanker during cargo operations at an oil jetty off the northwestern Indian port of Kandla.

But the ship's crew raised the alarm and the robbers, who had tried to break open a paint locker, jumped overboard and escaped empty handed.

A day earlier pirates boarded a bulker during cargo operations in Bangkok in Thailand.
They stole ship's property and escaped.

Details of the incident come from the latest reports submitted to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur.