10 nabbed in botched tanker hijacking

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian authorities thwarted the hijacking of a Thai oil tanker yesterday and arrested 10 suspected Indonesian pirates on board the ship, a maritime security agency commander said.

A special team from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) stormed the Tanker MGT1, off the coast of Terengganu, nearly 10 hours after it was reported missing on Wednesday.

While the 10 were detained on the tanker, three suspects on a smaller boat nearby managed to escape, and an MMEA vessel has been sent to find them, the agency’s chief, Maritime Admiral Zulkifli Abu Bakar, said in a statement.

The boat was spotted near the tanker by a helicopter.

“Warning shots were fired from the helicopter when the boat tried to escape but the attempt to stop them failed as it was running low on fuel.”

Zulkifli identified the 10 suspected pirates as Indonesian nationals.

Three pirates escaped in the smaller boat, and the coast guard is continuing the search for them.

The tanker’s crew of 14 Thai citizens were unharmed, the statement added.

The tanker was transporting 2.2 million litres of diesel valued at about US$7 million (RM29 million).

It has been escorted to Kuala Terengganu to facilitate investigations.

Piracy in Southeast Asian waters, including its busy international shipping lanes, has been a problem for years.

A report by MMEA said there were three attacks by pirates in Malaysian waters in the first half of this year. Although the number of attacks off islands in the South China Sea has dropped significantly in recent years, ships were still advised to remain vigilant, especially at night, it said. – Agencies