Armed Robbers Board Anchored Vessel off Indonesia

Thinkstock image An anchored heavy lift carrier was boarded by four robbers armed with guns off Batu Ampar, Batam Island, Indonesia, according to data released by International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB PRC). During the attack, which occurred on June 16, the robbers held hostage the duty AB at gun point, stole ship’s engine spares and escaped. At the time of the incident, the ship was anchored some 2.5 nautical miles West of Batu Ampar. IMB said that the incident was reported to the authorities via the ships agent. The name of the vessel was not revealed. The boarding comes on the back of the latest report from Asian piracy watchdog ReCAAP ISC, which showed that during May 2016, a total of eight incidents were reported in Asia, seven of which were armed robbery against ships and one was a piracy incident which occurred in the South China Sea. While there were no incidents reported in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore in May, there was one incident involving the hijacking of a product tanker, Hai Soon 12, off Pulau Belitung, Indonesia, for theft of oil cargo on board, some nine months after the previous oil cargo theft incident in August 2015. Out of the eight incidents reported, four occurred on board ships while anchored in Indonesia, namely in Jakarta Tanker Anchorage, Balikpapan Inner Anchorage and Samarinda Anchorage. The other two incidents occurred on board ships while underway in the South China Sea approaches towards Pulau Subi Besar and Java Sea, Indonesia.