Passengers heard 'pop, pop'

2008-12-03 12:31

Muscat - Passengers on a luxury cruise liner attacked by pirates in the dangerous waters between Yemen and Somalia said on Wednesday they were surprised by the assailants' boldness and described hearing the "pop, pop, pop" of the pirates' rifles firing at the ship.

Sunday's attack on the nearly 600-foot long M/S Nautica in the Gulf of Aden was the latest evidence that pirates have grown more aggressive, viewing almost any ship on the water as a potential target.

"We didn't think they would be cheeky enough to attack a cruise ship," said Wendy Armitage of Wellington, New Zealand, shortly after disembarking the ship for a daylong port stop in the Omani capital of Muscat.

"It was very minor really," she said of the attack that lasted about five minutes. "But it was a surprise that they attacked us, and they did fire shots."

Separately, pirates freed a hijacked Yemeni cargo ship and its eight crew members without receiving any ransom, a Somali minister in the semiautonomous northern region of Puntland saidon on Wednesday.

The ship, released on Tuesday night, was seized last month in the Arabian Sea.

'It wasn't really scary'

During Sunday's assault on the cruise liner, pirates fired eight rifle shots at the ship, according to its operator, Oceania Cruises, Inc. But the captain ordered passengers inside and accelerated the cruise liner quickly, leaving the pirates far behind in their 20 to 30-foot speedboats.

"I couldn't see them shooting, but I heard them hitting the ship, 'pop, pop, pop'," said Clyde Thornberg, on vacation from his home in Bend, Oregon.

"It wasn't really scary because the captain announced for the safety of everybody to get inside and get down, and by that time he was pouring on the coals to the ship and was outrunning them."

Sunday's assault was not the first time a cruise liner has been attacked. In 2005, pirates opened fire on the Seabourn Spirit about 160km off the Somali coast. The faster cruise ship managed to escape and used a long-range acoustic device - which blasts a painful wave of sound - to distract the pirates.

Several passengers on the Nautica said the ship's crew used a similar device to ward off Sunday's attack and briefed them before the cruise got under way on its importance to the vessel's defence.

"We had been reassured that they had these ghetto blasters that would go through them," said Lynne Pincini, of Australia. "Also, they said we could outrun anything, and we were in this corridor."

International warships patrol the area and have created a security corridor in the region under a US-led initiative, but attacks on shipping have not abated.

In about 100 attacks on ships off the Somali coast this year, 40 vessels have been hijacked.

Pirates have 13 ships

Pirates released the Yemeni cargo ship after an appeal by local clan elders and regional officials, said Somali state minister, Ali Abdi Aware. He said "no ransom was paid".

A Yemeni security official had said the pirates were initially demanding a $2m ransom to release the ship and its crew of three Yemenis, three Somalis and two Panamanians.

Thirteen ships remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 250 crew members including a Saudi super-tanker filled with $100m worth of crude and a Ukrainian ship loaded with 33 battle tanks.

But the International Maritime Bureau, in London, cited only the 2005 liner attack and a raid on the luxury yacht Le Ponant earlier this year as attacks on passenger vessels off Somalia before Sunday's assault.

- AP