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