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Image posted, PA media
The Andromeda Ship docked in the port of Southampton, in southern England, after a unit of British special forces detained seven people.
Seven people were arrested after a British Special Forces unit broke into an oil tanker suspected of having been hijacked off the coast of the Isle of Wight in southern Britain.
A 16-person Navy Special Forces unit managed to end a 10-hour standoff, which had begun when intruders aboard the Liberia-registered tanker Nave Andromeda turned violent.
The infiltrators, believed to be Nigerians seeking asylum in Britain, were handed over to southern Hampshire police on Sunday night.
None of the 22 crew of the tanker was injured.
The tanker later docked at Southampton.
BBC defense correspondent Jonathan Bell said special forces landed on the tanker with ropes from four helicopters after dark Sunday night.
Our correspondent said: “The seven infiltrators, believed to be Nigerians seeking asylum in Britain, were arrested and turned over to the Hampshire police.”
The 9 minute operation was carried out under cover of the dark.
Britain’s Defense Ministry described the incident as an “attempted kidnapping” and said Defense Minister Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel had agreed to launch the operation in response to a request from the police.
Secretary Wallace said: “Under dark skies and worsening weather conditions, we should all be grateful to our heroic soldiers. The people are safe tonight because of their efforts.”
As for Minister Patel, she said in a tweet on Twitter that she is “grateful for the swift and decisive action of our police and armed forces who managed to control the situation and guarantee the safety of all those on board.”
Our correspondent Jonathan Bell said that the seven infiltrators were detained after facing a “overwhelming force.”
He said that, in addition to the Special Forces team, a unit of divers was transferred to the site of the operation aboard a Navy helicopter for fear that the tanker had been mined, which was later shown not to happen.
analyzing
By Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent
The Naval Special Forces units, based in Bull City, Dorset County, are not as famous as the Air Special Forces, but the two forces have been used over the years to carry out sensitive counterterrorism missions and kidnapping in more difficult circumstances.
Landing ropes from helicopters at sea and under cover of darkness is not an easy task and is surrounded by great dangers, but these operations often surprise their targets, as yesterday’s operation lasted only 9 minutes.
However, the process would not have gone smoothly unless the tanker’s crew had followed the steps in the instruction manual entitled “Best Management Practices – Part Five”.
The withdrawal of the crew to a fortified room in the tanker – it is called “the castle” – and confining themselves to it allowed them to seek help while they were in safety.
In most cases of maritime piracy that took place off the coast of Somalia, rescue operations were not carried out unless all crew members camped inside these “forts”.
The 228-meter tanker Nave Andromeda had set sail from the Nigerian port of Lagos on 5 October and was heading for the Fawley oil refinery near the port of Southampton.
As it neared its destination, and as it sailed east to the Isle of Wight on Sunday morning, there were reports that seven intruders hiding on board began resorting to violence.
Attorneys for the tanker’s owners, the Greek shipping company Navios, said their crew had been aware of the presence of intruders on board for quite some time.
Police said they were informed of the potential danger facing the tanker’s crew at 10.4 a.m. GMT Sunday, when it was six miles from Bimbridge.
All 22 crew members were locked in the safe transport castle.
He announced the formation of a three-mile buffer zone around the tanker.
Tobias Allwood, chairman of the British House of Commons Defense Committee, said the landing on the tanker was a “good result”.
He added that “Seven infiltrators managed to gain control of the tanker or make it lose it, which generated a state of alarm in various security services, which in turn implemented well-trained secret protocols.”
“Police are investigating this incident, and we are investigating to arrive at a full understanding of all the circumstances surrounding it,” Hampshire Police Command said Sunday night.
“There is no evidence to suggest that this is a hijacking operation,” Bob Sanguinetti, executive director of the British Chamber of Shipping, told the BBC. “In fact, kidnappings of this type are very rare.”
In December 2018, 4 infiltrators who had resorted to violence were arrested aboard a container tanker in the Thames estuary.
The four men, who are from Nigeria and Liberia, waved metal batons and threw feces and urine at the “Grand Tema” crew after discovering their presence in the tanker.
