Taiwanese ship attacked by pirates in Malacca Strait

Taiwanese ship attacked by pirates in Malacca Strait

Agence France-Presse
Taipei

The captain of a Taiwan fisheries cargo ship was wounded after
his vessel was attacked by pirate boats in the Malacca Strait,
officials said on Sunday.

The 3,000-tonne Dong Yih based in Taiwan's southern Kaohsiung
city, was attacked by two pirate vessels while it was sailing for
Singapore on Saturday, an official from Taiwan's National Rescue
Command Center told AFP.

"The two pirate ships were disguised as oil rig tug boats...
that was why the captain did not pay attention to them when they
showed up," an official from the center quoted the captain as
saying.

The captain, identified as Lo Ying-hsiung, said his ship had
to speed away following the submachine gun attack which lasted
for some two hours.

The captain was hit in the knee by a bullet and some of the
ship's steering equipment was damaged.

The rest of the crew, including nine Taiwanese and 24
Philippine, Chinese and Vietnamese sailors, escaped unscathed.

"The foreign ministry has sought assistance from the Singapore
government," a foreign ministry official said, adding that the
Taiwan vessel "is expected to arrive in Singapore by the night of
tomorrow."

The Malacca Strait, a narrow waterway slicing Indonesia's
sprawling Sumatra island from mainland Southeast Asia, is one of
the busiest shipping lanes in the world, funneling 50,000 vessels
a year between the biggest economies of the West and the East.