THIS IS THE WAY: One of the crewmen relates how the pirates threatened him with machetes at his neck.
MIRI: Twelve crewmen of a ship bringing supply to an offshore barge were robbed by pirates armed with machetes while anchoring about 10km off Miri’s coast about 10.15pm Wednesday.
The robbery occurred while most of the crewmen were asleep.
All of them, however, escaped unhurt.
The ship was on its way back to shore after sending food supplies to the barge about noon of the same day. This was the second time such incident occurred here involving pirates robbing crewmen this month.
Marine police arrived at the scene about 11pm Wednesday after they received a distress call from the ship’s captain.
The pirates only managed to take away two walkie-talkies from the ship. The pirates are believed to be a mix of locals and a few foreigners based on their accent.
“The pirates had no time to take any valuables from the ship as they panicked after hearing the captain talking on the walkie-talkie to the marine police for help. The captain had earlier managed to escape the pirates by running to his cabin where he made the call,” one of the crewmen said.
He added that the pirates tied five of them with rope while they ransacked the cabins.
THE robbed ship, “Arifah Aryan” back to shore. – Photo source from See Hua Daily News
IMAGE showing how the pirates tie the victims feet. – Photo source from See Hua Daily News
IMAGE showing how the pirates tie the victims hands. – Photo source from See Hua Daily News
THE door was damaged by the pirate’s Parang. – Photo source from See Hua Daily News
THE captain explained that the pirates intended to destroy the door knob with the Parang but failed. – Photo source from See Hua Daily News
The pirates were in the ship for about 15 minutes before they fled.