By Jonathan Saul and Renee Maltezou
ATHENS (Reuters) -Pirates boarded a Malta-flagged products tanker off Somalia on Thursday, but the crew took refuge in a fortified safe room and remain in control of the vessel, maritime security sources said.
A burst of armed attacks on vessels in the region - including the first involving suspected Somali pirates in a year - has reignited concerns for shipping lanes used to transport critical energy and goods to global markets.
The Hellas Aphrodite, which was carrying
gasoline, was en route from India to South Africa when a "security incident" took place on Thursday morning, its Greek manager Latsco Marine Management said. All the crew were safe, it added.
Pirates on a skiff opened fire on the tanker, maritime security firm Ambrey said. The pirates had also fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the vessel, maritime security sources said.
The European Union's naval force said one of its assets was "close to the incident and closing distance, ready to take the appropriate actions to respond effectively to this piracy alert".
CREW SAFE, SAYS VESSEL'S MANAGER
The crew members took shelter in the ship's "citadel", or fortified safe room, and still had control of the vessel, officials from maritime security company Diaplous and British maritime risk management group Vanguard said.
The vessel's captain is Montenegrin, a source with knowledge of the operation said. Five of the crew members, including the chief engineer, are Greek and the rest are Filipino nationals, the source added.
"All 24 crew are safe and accounted for and we remain in close contact with them," Latsco Marine Management said in a statement.
Latsco said it had activated its emergency response team and was coordinating with authorities to ensure the continued safety and welfare of the crew.
"The crew reported they could hear noise on the vessel," one of the maritime security sources said.
A Japanese aircraft conducted a surveillance flight over the area, but did not detect any movement or signs of activity on the ship, the source added.
The last comparable boarding in the region was in May 2024, when suspected pirates got onto the Liberian-flagged vessel Basilisk around 380 nautical miles east of Mogadishu. EU naval forces later rescued the 17 crew members after rappelling by fast-rope onto that vessel.
On Monday, in the first suspected Somali piracy incident of its kind since 2024, armed assailants attacked a commercial tanker off the coast near the capital Mogadishu, firing at the vessel after attempting to board it, maritime sources said.
Maritime security sources said pirates had also taken over an Iranian fishing vessel this week for use as a mothership to launch attacks.
The last hijacking took place in December 2023, when the Maltese-flagged Ruen was taken by assailants to the Somali coast before Indian naval forces freed the crew and arrested the attackers.
Somali pirate gangs have been relatively inactive in recent years after previously being a major menace around the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.
Yemen's Iran-affiliated Houthi militia have posed a greater threat to shipping through the Red Sea, which leads into the Gulf of Aden, since the group first launched attacks on commercial ships in November 2023, in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel's war in Gaza.
While the Houthis have agreed to a truce on targeting U.S.-linked shipping, many shipping companies remain wary of resuming voyages through those waters.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou, Jonathan Saul, George Obulutsa and Yannis Souliotis; Editing by Alexander Winning, Gareth Jones and Andrew Heavens)
