Pirates shoot at Irishman during escape
Sunday November 30 2008
Somali pirates tried to shoot a Dublin man and his two British friends as they fled a hijacked ship before trying to run them down in the water.
In the latest incident in the pirate-infested waters off Somalia on Friday, the three men, who formed a security team on board a tanker, managed to fend off a pirate attack for 40 minutes. The men, all of whom are ex-members of the British army, used a long-range sound device and water cannon to deter six pirates armed with AK-47 rifles and RPG grenade launchers.
The three are employed by Dorset-based Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions who use non-lethal means to try to deter pirate attacks.
They were on board the Liberian flagged tanker the Biscaglia, which was carrying a cargo of palm oil, when the attack happened as the ship was sailing through the Gulf of Aden from India to Rotterdam on friday.
A former British Army pilot who runs the security company, Nick Davis, said reports suggested the security team were only finally overwhelmed when the attackers gained access to the ship and continued to fire on them.
He said the three men, including the Irishman, had no choice but to abandon ship.
"They were unarmed. They had no other option. As far as I'm concerned, they deserve a medal," he said.
A French frigate in the area, the Nivose, sent a helicopter to the scene after it received a distress call from the tanker. The three men signalled to the Lynx helicopter and jumped into the water, where they were eventually winched on board.
However, Mr Davis said the pirates fired at them in the water and tried to run them down in the hijacked vessel.
He said all three members of the security team, two ex-Royal Marines and an ex-Parachute Regiment soldier, were well, with no reported injuries.
Their names will not be released until their families have been informed, the company said.
The ship was the 97th to be attacked off Somalia this year, despite a Western naval presence, and at least 15 ships with 300 crew members are being held for ransom by the pirates.
- Don Lavery
