HK ship freed after ransom paid

2008-11-20 14:15

Hong Kong - A Hong Kong-flagged ship hijacked two months ago off the coast of Somalia is returning home after its owner paid a ransom to a group of pirates, AFP was told on Thursday.

A spokesperson for Sinotrans Shipping said its vessel Great Creation had left the Gulf of Aden on Thursday afternoon after it was released by a group of Somali pirates late on Wednesday.

"A ransom was paid. The vessel has left the Somali area safely and is in international waters heading back Hong Kong," she said.

"No one was hurt," she added.

The crew, which had been held hostage since September, consists of a Sri Lankan captain, a technical officer from Hong Kong and 23 mainland Chinese sailors. The vessel is carrying a large quantity of chemical fertilisers, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship hijacked on Tuesday by pirates off the coast of Yemen is still being held, said a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong government.

"Our government is very concerned about the incident. The Marine Department is liaising closely with the owner of the ship and monitoring the development," she said.

The cargo ship Delight, carrying 25 crew members and 36 000 tons of wheat headed, was heading for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua said.

Ambrose Lee, Hong Kong's Secretary for Security, told broadcaster Cable TV: "Every time when incidents like this happened, we would always be in close contact with the ship owner.

"Lots of times though, the ship owner told us they could resolve the problem themselves. Maybe there was some sort of negotiation between their insurance company and the pirates."

The Hong Kong government said the vessel was owned by Iranian firm Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and its crew members were from India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Ghana, and Iran.

H&T Int'l Transportation, the shipping group's official agent in Hong Kong, said on Thursday it had no comment to make.

The hijacking of Delight came after a Saudi super-tanker carrying two million barrels of oil was seized at the weekend by Somali pirates. The pirates said on Thursday that they demanded $25m in ransom from the Saudi owners of the tanker and had set a 10-day deadline.

The Sirius Star, the size of three football fields and three times the weight of a US aircraft carrier, is the largest ship ever seized by pirates and the hijacking was the furthest out to sea that Somali bandits struck.

The recent string of hijacking cases have prompted calls for tougher action against sea bandits, especially those off Somalia.

This year, Somali pirates have attacked 90 ships, more than double the number in 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau. Pirates are still holding 16 ships and more than 250 sailors.

- AFP