PHUONG DONG 05

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Attack off Nipa Anchorage

The last two days have seen a spate of attacks on ships in the waters south of Singapore with three incidents of attempted robbery occurring within a 24-hour period in the vicinity of Nipa Anchorage involving the bulker "Ore Vitoria", the Malaysian-flagged tug "Kien San 1" towing the barge "Kien San 8" and the "Eastern Star" enroute from Port Klang to Jakarta. All were underway around the Nipa Anchorage area when they were boarded by a group of four men. Nothing was taken however, and the ships' crews were unharmed. The first incident occurred on May 28, 2014, at 6.25 a.m., the second at 10.42 a.m. and the last one at 3.53 a.m. ton May 20. Four men boarded the "Ore Vitoria" while underway southwest of Nipa Anchorage. Nothing was stolen and the crew was not injured. The master conducted a search of the vessel and confirmed that the men had escaped. Also four men boarded the barge "Kien San 8" from the stern. The master and crew tried to scare away the perpetuators. The Singapore Police Coast Guard deployed a patrol craft to the location of the incident but the men escaped in their small boats. No items were stolen from the barge and the crew was not injured. The "Eastern Star" was attacked southwest of Nipa Anchorage when four men boarded from the stern of the vessel and went to the engine room. The master conducted a search of the vessel and the four men had escaped. No items were stolen and the crew was not injured. Due to the similarity of methods of operation and the incident area, ReCAAP speculated that the robbers had simply hung around the area and moved from one vessel to the next when the previous attack had not yielded any results. It emphasised however that there was no evidence to substantiate that the same group was involved in all the incidents.