Pirates hijack another British ship

Published on Saturday 2 January 2010 18:55

ANOTHER BRITISH-flagged cargo ship has been hijacked off the coast of Somalia, officials said yesterday.

The Asian Glory, with a foreign crew of 25 and a cargo of 4,000 cars, was taken well outside an area patrolled by European navies.

The ship was seized late on Friday some 600 miles east of the Somalia coast as it headed to join a convoy sailing for the Gulf of Aden. The Foreign Office said no Britons were on board.

The ship is the second British vessel to be hijacked by Somali pirates in a week. The UK-flagged tanker St James Park was captured on Monday in the Gulf of Aden while on its way to Thailand from Spain.

Commander John Harbour, of the European Union Naval Force (EU NavFor), said the MV Asian Glory was hijacked "well outside the EU NavFor area of operation".

Harbour said the ship had been seized by pirates, but he could not confirm that they were Somalis.

Somali pirates have made tens of millions of dollars from seizing ships for ransom in the Gulf of Aden, linking Europe to Asia. They now hunt deep in the Indian Ocean to evade foreign navies sent to protect commercial shipping.

The Asian Glory has a crew of ten Ukrainians, eight Bulgarians, five Indians and two Romanians.

The ship was travelling from Singapore to Saudi Arabia, according to the Bulgarian office of Zodiac, the London-based firm that manages the vessel.

"One of the sailors managed to call the British management company and say the ship was hijacked, but that the crew were in good health and were not injured," said company spokesman Prodan Radanov.

The St James Park, meanwhile, anchored off the Somalian pirate stronghold of Hobyo on Hogmanay. The chemical tanker, which is also managed by Zodiac, has a crew of 26, including three from the Philippines, three Russians, one Georgian, two Romanians, five Bulgarians, two Ukrainians, a Pole, six Indians and three Turks. Pirates currently hold more than ten vessels.

Harbour added: "The standard procedure for the pirates is to get the ship back to their stronghold and then contact the owner. I don't know yet where the ship is bound."

Later, an EU NavFor spokesman said the 13,445-tonne Asian Glory had been travelling north-west and had been expected in safe and patrolled waters today .

But the ship was hijacked in the Somali Basin, about 900 nautical miles north of the Seychelles and 600 miles from the coast of Somalia, he said.

Somali pirates have hijacked more than 80 ships in the past two years, with many of the hijackings earning the pirates multi-million-dollar ransoms. Pirates now hold 14 vessels and close to 300 crew members.

Yesterday also brought the hijacking of a Singaporean-flagged chemical tanker, Pramoni, with a crew of 24. It was seized by pirates in the heavily-defended Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest waterways.