A European Union naval force raced Friday to reach a Malta-flagged tanker held by pirates off the coast of Somalia as officials warned of another attempted approach by the gang.
The seizure of the Hellas Aphrodite, carrying a load of gasoline from India to South Africa, put its crew of 24 mariners at risk and raised fears of further attacks by the pirates operating in the region.
The pirates fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in their assault Thursday, later boarding the Hellas Aphrodite as its crew hid in a locked-down citadel aboard the vessel, officials said. Tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed the tanker over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) off the Somali coast.
The EU’s Operation Atalanta, an anti-piracy coalition, said Friday its “assets are close to the incident and are closing distance, ready to take the appropriate action and to respond respectively to this event.”
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