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| Southeast Asia |
| Attack on M'sian tanker foiled as crewman races off with pirates' boat |
| 2005-06-14 |
| An attack by Indonesian pirates on a Malaysian tanker was foiled Tuesday when a quick-thinking crewman from the vessel leapt into the robbers' boat and sped off in it to fetch the police, officials said. The tanker, which was carrying diesel from Malaysia's Port Klang to Myanmar, was boarded before dawn by 10 pirates off the northern island of Langkawi in the Malacca Strait. "All the suspects got up on the tanker and they left their boat beside the tanker ship. Then one of the crew of the tanker ship just stole the boat," an officer with the Langkawi marine police base told AFP. Leaving the pirates stranded on the 4,629-tonne tanker, owned by Malaysian company Netline, the crew member raced to the marine police base and raised the alert. Police arrived at the scene a little after midday and managed to persuade the suspects, all of whom are Indonesians, to give up about three hours later. "The pirates threatened to blow up the boat during negotiations but the police finally got them to surrender," Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre, told AFP. All 19 crew members on board the tanker were safe, although the captain is believed to have sustained a light head injury, said a northern region marine police officer. |
| Posted by:phil_b |
| #2 Always secure your exit first, boys. |
| Posted by: Shairong Sninter4063 2005-06-14 20:51 |
| #1 You know, someone could make a case that the crewman committed an act of piracy... I don't expect justice in that part of the world. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2005-06-14 19:30 |