Bunker Pirates Strike in Armed Robbery off Malaysian Coast

The Naninwa Maru 1 was attacked in the Malacca Strait

Armed pirates stole about 3 million litres of diesel from a Japanese tanker in the Malacca Strait early Wednesday morning, according to media reports.

"The incident occurred at about 1am and it was only realised by the crew members when they saw about five or six men armed with a pistol and a parang aboard the ship," Port Klang Marine Police Commander DSP Norzaid Muhammad Said told the Malaysian Star.

Norzaid said the victims were tied and locked in a room while tankers approached the ship and pumped out the fuel, and the pirates fled five or six hours later.

The pirates took three Indonesian crew members with them when they left, but it is not clear whether the men were kidnapped or were complicit in the attack.

"There is a possibility that the abducted crew was involved in the hijack based on new leads and that their personal documents, clothes and belongings were taken along with then," the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

The incident occurred as the vessel, the Naninwa Maru 1, was sailing near Port Klang, Malaysia.

"We are very concerned," said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre.

"It's the first time this has happened so far north in the Malacca Strait… It's not an area where we have seen the modus operandi of ships hijacked for their cargo."

The Guardian reports that regional security officials believe syndicates with inside knowledge about ships and possible links to the crews are tied to armed gangs that carry out pirate attacks in the Malacca Strait.

The Strait carriers about a quarter of the world's seaborne oil trade.

Hijackings and thefts by gangs can involve the seizure of petroleum cargo to be sold on the black market.