Pirates attack Japanese oil tanker sailing from S'pore to Myanmar
PUBLISHED ONApril 23, 2014 1:20 AMByHariz Mohd
PORT KLANG - Pirates, armed with pistols and parangs, robbed a Japanese oil tanker before kidnapping three of its crew at 21.8 nautical miles off Tanjung Karang near here on Tuesday.
The pirates approached the vessel in a speedboat at 1am while it was sailing from Singapore to Myanmar.
Marine police Zone 1 commander Assistant Commissioner Mohd Yusof Abdullah said eight masked men, armed with two handguns and several parang, climbed aboard the vessel and held its 18 crew members hostage.
"The pirates started pumping diesel from the tanker into their boat. They took three Indonesian crew members and the crew's belongings and identification documents, before fleeing," he said.
Yusof said the crew was made up of men from Thailand, Indonesia and India.
However, he said, it had yet to be determined how much of the tanker's fuel was siphoned off by the pirates.
It was learnt that no one was injured during the robbery.
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