ARMED pirates have hijacked an oil tanker near Port Kelang in Malaysia, the first time so far north in the Malacca Strait, kidnapping three Indonesian crew members, including the captain and chief engineer.
Eight Indonesian pirates in a fishing vessel boarded the Naniwa Maru 1 and pumped out three million litres of the 4.5 million litres of diesel carried by the tanker into two waiting vessels, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said.
"There is a possibility that the abducted crew was involved in the hijack based on new leads and that their personal documents, clothes and belongings were taken along with then," the agency said in a statement.
"We are very concerned," said the head of the International Maritime Bureau's Malaysia-based Piracy Reporting Centre Noel Choong.
"It's the first time this has happened so far north in the Malacca Strait, and the first time they have kidnapped the crew. It's not an area where we have seen the modus operandi of ships hijacked for their cargo."
The Saint Kitts and Nevis registered oil tanker, which was bound for Myanmar from Singapore, has been towed to Port Klang for further investigations.
Malaysian authorities are working closely with their Indonesian counterparts to track down the two vessels and locate the missing crew.
The stolen cargo is worth US$2.5 million, based on the average price of diesel this year in Singapore, according to Clarkson data.
There were eight armed robberies in the Malacca Strait and around Singapore in the first quarter this year, compared with one a year earlier, Singapore-based ReCAAP said, although most were small thefts.
PIRACY
25 April 2014 - 22:09
Pirates hijack oil tanker, kidnap three crewmen in Malacca Strait
ARMED pirates have hijacked an oil tanker near Port Kelang in Malaysia, the first time so far north in the Malacca Strait, kidnapping three Indonesian crew members, including the captain and chief engineer.
PIRACY
25 April 2014 - 22:09
Pirates hijack oil tanker, kidnap three crewmen in Malacca Strait
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