The Vietnam Coast Guard (VCG) has dispatched another boat to escort Sunrise 689, which was hijacked with 18 crew members on board and then released by pirates on October 2, to the southern coastal city of Vung Tau and begun to investigate the hijacking.   

>> Hijacked Vietnamese tanker to arrive in Vung Tau tonight >> Captain of hijacked Vietnam oil tanker recalls horror of attack>> Missing Vietnamese tanker hijacked and released by pirates>> Vietnam seeking outside help in search for missing ship >> Search underway for missing tanker with 18 Vietnamese sailors The watercraft was sent after the VCG, the Vung Tau Port Authority, local police, and border guard forces convened to discuss plans to collect information for a probe into the piracy.     Colonel Dinh Quoc Ruan, political chairman of the Command of the Vietnam Coast Guard in Zone 3, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Friday afternoon that Sunrise 689 was sailing at five nautical miles per hour, under the escort of three VCG ships, and might arrive in Vung Tau at 7:00 am on Saturday. Meanwhile the Vietnam News Agency said the ship, owned by Hai Phong Fishery Shipbuilding Joint Stock Company, was expected to reach Buoy Number 0 in Vung Tau at about 2:00 am today and it will be guided to anchor in the Sao Mai-Ben Dinh area three hours later.Major General Nguyen Quang Dam, Commander of the VCG, told Tuoi Tre that when the ship arrives in Vung Tau, the Coast Guard force will ask the crewmembers for necessary information related to the hijackers, who stole one-third of the oil from the vessel and injured two aboard.Nguyen Quyet Thang, the ship’s captain, told Tuoi Tre over the phone on Thursday that Sunrise 689 was hijacked when it was transporting over 5,200 tons of oil from Singapore to the central Vietnamese province of Quang Tri on October 2. There were 18 crew members aboard at the time of the piracy, Thang added. The tanker was approached by a high-speed watercraft and two fishing boats a couple of hours after departing from the Horizon port in Singapore.

The hijackers were armed with guns and knives. Some of them took control of the crew, while others destroyed the vessel’s communication system, Thang said. The pirates assaulted several sailors, including machinist Luong Dai Thanh who suffered a broken toe and badly injured left kneecap and crewman Tran Van Lich who got an ankle injury, the captain said.

They stole one-third of the vessel’s oil and then freed the ship around 2:00 am on October 9 near Thai waters, Thang added. At about 5:30 am the same day, Thang used his mobile phone to report the piracy to Hai Phong Fishery Shipbuilding Company, according to the Vietnam Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center.   A few hours later, the High Command of the VCG dispatched two boats, CSB 2004 and CSB 2001, to rendezvous with the ship and escort them to return to Vietnam.

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