Pirates board vessel along Singapore Strait

SINGAPORE – Four pirates reportedly stole some scrap iron after boarding a Malaysia-flagged tug and barge along the Singapore Strait on Tuesday (July 4) morning.

The incident, which happened in Malaysian waters, occurred at about 8.30am, with no one reported injured.

When queried, a spokesman for Malaysian shipping corporation GimHwak Group, which owns the affected vessel Jin Hwa 40, said the attackers boarded the barge from a sampan (flat-bottomed wooden boat).

“There were nine crew members on board the tug, but no one was hurt as the barge was unmanned when the attack happened,” the spokesman said.

“We reported the incident to the Republic of Singapore Navy’s Information Fusion Centre (IFC) and the attackers left around 9.30am.”

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The vessel was sailing from Brunei to Malaysia at the time of the attack, according to a press summary by IFC.

According to the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia Information Sharing Centre, there were 41 sea robberies in the Singapore Strait from January to June.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.