At least one vessel, possibly two, have been attacked in the Gulf of Guinea today at around 1200 GMT, approximately 90 miles south of Lagos, Nigeria. A nearby vessel was chased by the pirates and gives us this report:
“We are on scene 7 miles from incident, MT Pluto was boarded by a brown and white fishing vessel which deployed its FRC (fast rescue craft) with 10+ armed men. MT Pluto was looted, bridge communications were destroyed. The pirates headed back to the mother ship and then spotted us. The pirate mothership turned and increased speed, however were able to outrun them. We are all safe, but the tanker is heading for Lagos for repairs.”
We will update this story with further details as they become available.
UPDATE: We have received a second report that another vessel, the MT Zouzou, has been attacked in the Gulf of Guinea.
Today at 0827 UTC we received DSC distress call from MT Zouzou. They got attacked by pirates in pos. 02 56N 003 13E, which was 50nm from our vessel engaged in sub sea ops on oil field. Couple minutes later they call MAYDAY on CH16 VHF and reported that they are under attack by aprox. armed 12 pirates. We and other vessel tried to establish connection with Zouzou but with no success. Vessel was not responding any longer.
So far this report has not been confirmed by official sources and, again, will update as we learn more.
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