News

The tuna-fishing vessel from Bermeo in Biscay, the Alakrana, has been hijacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean, confirmed the owner of the ship and Basque Fishing Councillor Pilar Unzalu during a press conference to the media. It is the second time in a month the ship has been subject to such an attack.

The Basque Government councillor confirmed that the vessel was captured by pirates at 5.30am on Friday morning. After receiving the alert, two Luxembourg military aircrafts which had been sent to observe the Alakrana confirmed that they had spotted armed persons aboard the ship.

Unzalu assured the Basque Government was in constant contact with the Fishing and Environment Ministeries and that they had also created a commission to see over the catastrophe. In accordance with this, a 24-hour hotline (+34 900 840 120) has been set up for relatives of those aboard.

The ship was taken while in international waters, 350 miles from the Somali coast , according to the Bermeo shipping-company. The same sources also confirmed that the ship was then taken to the Somali shoreline by capturing pirates.

Prior to the attack, the fishing crew had just seven minutes to communicate with other vessels fishing in the Indian Ocean at the same time, and in doing so raise the alarm. Sources explained that information on the situation was still "scarce" since the hijackers had cut off all forms of communication.

Apparently, a second fishing vessel from the same company (the ''Alakrantxu'') reported the attack to a Canarian military frigate, which had been deployed in the zone as part of the European Union''s aero naval operation ''Atlanta'', and which immediately implemented a military presence.

For their part, the company that owns the Alakrana informed that the craft sent out an alarm signal at 5.30am advising of the pirate-attack but since then had not been able to establish "any form of contact with the ship".

According to state spokesperson for Defence, the Ministry ordered the armed frigate Canarias and the combat aircraft specialised in maritime patrol, the P3-Orion, to head towards the area of the attack in order to carry out observation of the ship. The warship, however, is still a day away from reaching the vessel.

Escape from previous attack

On the 4th September, the same fishing craft suffered another attack by Somalian pirates although on that occasion it managed to escape hijack.

The Alakrana, which set sail on 31st August, has a total of thirty crew members, ten of whom are from Galicia (in Northwest Spain), ten are Basque and ten are of various nationalities.