Ships on lookout for Malaysian tug

Ships on lookout for Malaysian tug

MALAYSIA: Ships plying the Malacca Strait have been enlisted to help search for the missing Malaysian-registered tugboat believed to have been hijacked by armed Indonesian pirates, news reports said on Sunday.

The International Maritime Bureau has passed on photographs of the tugboat Zara 3 to regional maritime authorities as well as to passing ships, the Star newspaper reported.

Malaysian marine police and their Indonesian counterparts have also launched an operation to locate the ship, which was transporting oil-platform spare parts in the strait, which separates peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia's Sumatra island.

The boat, with a crew of nine men, mostly Indonesians, was reported to have been attacked on Tuesday in Indonesian waters.

The incident came to light the next day when the sole Malaysian crewman of the ship was found adrift clinging onto a piece of wood by an Indonesian navy crew and taken to their base. The fate of the missing eight men remains unknown. -- DPA