Ships travelling in the Singapore Strait have been urged to be on high alert after pirates struck yet again on Christmas Day, bringing the number of recent attacks to six in as many days.
Oil tanker Stena Immortal was the latest to be hit when six pirates slipped aboard just after midnight on Dec 25 as it was travelling in the Singapore Strait towards the port of Singapore.
The ship's chief engineer spotted the pirates in the engine room at 12.28am and alerted the master of the British-flagged vessel.
The alarm system was activated, and the six perpetrators, who were unarmed, fled empty-handed from the stern of the ship in an unidentified small boat.
The incident is the sixth since last Friday and a regional piracy watchdog has declared that it is "seriously concerned" about the sudden spike in attacks in the Singapore Strait.
The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCaap) Information Sharing Centre said in a statement: "Since the perpetrators of these incidents are not arrested, there is a possibility of further incidents in the Singapore Strait."
It added: "All ships are strongly advised to exercise utmost vigilance, adopt extra precautionary measures and report all incidents immediately to the nearest coastal state."
The centre also called on law enforcement agencies of the littoral states to further step up surveillance and patrols, and enhance cooperation and coordination to respond promptly to incidents.
Fortunately, there was no confrontation between the perpetrators and the crew in Wednesday's incident.
The ship's master reported the incident to the Singapore Vessel Traffic Information System, which initiated a safety navigational broadcast.
The Indonesian authorities and Singapore's navy and Police Coast Guard (PCG) were also notified, and PCG officers boarded the ship when it arrived in Singapore.
Wednesday's incident brings the total number of recorded piracy cases so far this year in the Singapore Strait to 30. Of these, half involved ships in the westbound lane of the Singapore Strait and half in the eastbound lane of the strait.
Eight incidents were recorded in the straits of Malacca and Singapore last year. Incident figures have dropped drastically from 2015, when 104 incidents were recorded in the straits of Malacca and Singapore. Only two incidents were recorded in 2016, while nine incidents were recorded in 2017.
Incidents recorded in ReCaap's annual report include piracy attempts and actual piracy attacks.
In the past week, the ReCaap centre issued two earlier incident alerts relating to five piracy attempts in the strait.
At 5.32am last Friday, an unknown number of pirates boarded Panama-flagged bulk carrier Jian Fa. The crew conducted a search but did not find the perpetrators nor anything missing.
Later that night, six pirates armed with knives boarded Indian-flagged tanker Jag Lalit and punched an engineer in the face. They stole a gold chain from the chief engineer, who sustained bruises on his neck.
At about the same time, five armed pirates gained entry into the engine room of Bangladesh-flagged bulk carrier Akij Globe, where they confronted three crew members.
The alarm was raised, but the perpetrators made off with some main engine and generator spare parts, escaping in a small white boat.
Shortly after midnight on Monday, the chief engineer and duty engineer of Panama-flagged tanker Bamzi spotted three pirates in the engine room - one of them was armed with a knife. The three fled immediately when the alarm was raised. Two motormen were later found tied up, but the crew was otherwise safe and nothing was taken.
Closer to 2am on Monday, six pirates were spotted in the engine room of Panama-flagged bulk carrier Trust Star, but escaped when the alarm was raised. They had confronted and tied up two crew members in the engine room who later managed to untie themselves.
