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Seven people have been detained after armed forces personnel boarded a tanker off the Isle of Wight, following reports that its crew had been threatened by stowaways.
The Hampshire Police had requested military assistance to deal with the situation aboard the 228-meter Andromeda Ship.
The British Ministry of Defense announced on Twitter Sunday evening: “In response to a request from the police, the Secretary of Defense and the Home Secretary authorized Armed Forces personnel to board a ship in the English Channel. to safeguard life and secure a ship that was subject to suspected hijacking.
“The armed forces have taken control of the ship and seven people have been arrested.
“The police investigations will now continue. Initial reports confirm that the crew is safe and sound. “
UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said: “I commend the hard work of the armed forces and police to protect lives and secure the ship.
“In dark skies and the weather turns worse, we should all be grateful for our brave staff. People are safe tonight because of your efforts. “
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “Tonight we are grateful for the swift and decisive action by our police and armed forces who were able to control this situation, ensuring the safety of all who were on board.”
Speaking shortly before the Defense Ministry confirmed the military action, Bob Sanguinetti, Executive Director of the UK Chamber of Shipping, said: “We understand that the ship has been boarded by security forces and brought to safety.
“We commend the swift action taken by the UK staff to secure the ship and, most importantly, the security crew.”
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons Defense Committee, said the tanker’s boarding was a “good result.”
He told BBC News: “Seven stowaways on board who seized a ship or made the ship not in full command would have triggered a multi-agency alarm and then well-rehearsed classified protocols were put into action.”
Concerns were raised with police about the well-being of the ship’s crew shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday, Hampshire police said.
Police said the vessel, located about six miles off the coast of Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, was traveling in the direction of Southampton.
He added in an earlier statement Sunday night: “Several stowaways were reported to be on board and had made verbal threats to the crew. No one has been reported injured.
“An exclusion zone, with a radius of three miles, is currently near the ship.”
Police were said to be working alongside the Coast Guard and Maritime Agency and the Border Force to respond to the incident.
John Thompson, co-founder of Ambrey, a maritime security firm that advised the ship’s Greek owners on Sunday, told the Financial Times that the incident “was definitely not a hijacking.”
“It’s the stowaways who have gotten a bit noisy with the crew,” he told the newspaper.
According to maritime tracking websites, the Andromeda Ship had set sail from Lagos, Nigeria, on October 5.
It is understood that the tanker was expected to dock in Southampton at 10.30am Sunday and that the port received contact from the ship, but had not been denied entry to the port.
Two coast guard helicopters were flown to the scene and seen circling the ship Sunday afternoon.
Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of the maritime news magazine Lloyd’s List, previously wrote on his website that he had received information that there were seven stowaways on board.
He said the stowaways were understood to have been on board since the ship left Nigeria, although it had also made anchor stops in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and south of Sant Nazaire, France.
Speaking to the Palestinian Authority news agency, he said: “The information I have is that it was a case of stowaways discovered on board and when the crew tried to put them in a cabin and try to obtain their information, there was no documentation . “
Meade alleged: “They tried to put them in a cabin and that’s when the stowaways became violent; that doesn’t look like kidnapping to me, it’s a stowaway thing.”
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