Oil Tanker Fights Off Pirates... Um, Pirates?!?
Oil tanker fights off pirates
April 6, 2005 1:50 PM
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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The crew of a Japanese oil tanker have used powerful fire hoses to fend off an attack by pirates in the Singapore Strait.
The International Maritime Bureau said pirates in seven fishing boats accosted the east-bound tanker near Indonesia's Karimun Islands on Tuesday afternoon -- the third attack on a Japanese vessel in three weeks in the busy shipping lane which carries more than a quarter of world trade.
Jayant Abhyankar, deputy director of the IMB said pirates from one of the boats steered close to the Japanese vessel and attempted to board the tanker while the remaining six hovered around it.
But the small craft was beaten off by strong water jets from fire hoses used by the crew. The tanker then increased speed and fled.
The centre could not confirm the total number of pirates or if they were armed, but said all twenty-five crew members of the vessel were safe.
The Singapore and Indonesian coast guards have been alerted, said Abhyankar.
The watchdog has repeatedly warned of a "potential human and environmental catastrophe" if an oil tanker is hijacked in the strategic sea lane.
The narrow strait between Malaysia and Indonesia, with Singapore at its southern entrance, links trading and oil centres in the Middle East, Asia and Europe, with over 50,000 commercial vessels travelling the 805-km (500-mile) channel between the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the Malaysian peninsula to Singapore each year.
The International Maritime Bureau said nearly a third of the 325 cases of recorded pirate attacks last year happened in Indonesian waters, including the Malacca Strait.
