New Delhi: Pirates have abducted an Indian crew from a ship, anchored off the west African nation of Gabon. Efforts are on to rescue him, a second engineer belonging to a Mumbai-firm.
The ship, with 17 crew members, including two Keralites, was attacked by sea pirates on Sunday.
Two crew members, who resisted the pirates, have reportedly suffered gun shots and are being provided treatment. They are out of danger, engineer Korak Sharma told Manorama.
The St Kitts and Nevis-flagged vessel, MV Tampen, dropped anchor while sailing from Cameroon to Namibia. It dropped anchor off Gabon's Owendo anchorage after developing technical issues.
According to information received, four armed pirates used a ladder to board the ship around Sunday midnight, threatened the crew at gunpoint, and took them to the upper deck.
When resisted, they tossed the second engineer, Pankaj Kumar, 31, of Punjab, into the sea, and shot at chief officer Vikas Naurial, 48, of Uttarakhand, and cook Sunil Ghosh, 26, of West Bengal.
The pirates later took Kumar away in their boat. Kumar was thrown off the ship from the upper deck.
Other crew members, including Deepak Udayarajan, 31, of Marakkarkandi in Kannur, and Shayal Xavier, of Ochanthuruthu in Puthuvype, Ernakulam, are safe.
The ship is still anchored in Gabon waters to facilitate investigation formalities.
Tampen, belonging to Mumbai-based Prince Marine Transport Service, had set sail from Cameroon on August 26, and it dropped anchor 2 km off Owendo on August 31.
The offshore supply ship has been engaged in providing equipment for rigs.
It has been alleged that though the Owendo Port authorities were informed of the midnight incident immediately, the ship received help only at 6.20am.
