A Vietnamese sailor died at a hospital in Singapore on Sunday after being shot by a group of pirates who hijacked his cargo boat off the island nation earlier the same day.

>> Police confirm piracy attack on Vietnam oil tanker, seek Interpol help     The victim was Tran Duc Dat, one of the 16 crewmembers of the VP Asphalt 2, which is owned by the Vietnam Petroleum Transport Joint Stock Company. The hijacking occurred at 4:30 am on December 7 about 60 nautical miles off Singapore, when the ship was carrying 2,300 tons of liquid asphalt from Singapore to the southern province of Dong Nai, according to the Vietnam Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (Vietnam MRCC). After tying the crewmembers up, the pirates searched their rooms and the cargo hold for an hour. They left the ship at 5:30 am.       After the hijackers left, several crewmembers found Dat, whose age has not been identified yet, lying in a coma in his room, with a bloody gunshot wound to his head. The ship reported the case to the Vietnam MRCC, which provided instructions on giving first aid to Dat. The agency asked the Singaporean search and rescue forces to send a helicopter to the scene to take the victim ashore for emergency treatment. The agency also notified the ship’s owner of the incident and asked it to coordinate with Singaporean authorities to handle the case. At 9:40 am, Dat was taken to Singapore on a helicopter under the care of Singaporean doctors. He was then brought to a hospital but died at noon the same day due to his wound.

Meanwhile, the VP Asphalt 2 returned to Singapore to report to local authorities about the attack.

The Vietnam MRCC has asked the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Consular Department and the ship’s owner to work with Singaporean authorities to send Dat back to Vietnam and handle the incident. The location where the ship was attacked is near the waters where another Vietnamese cargo ship, the Sunrise 689, owned by the Hai Phong Fishery Shipbuilding Joint Stock Company, was attacked on October 2, according to the Vietnam MRCC. The Sunrise 689 was hijacked while carrying 5,226 tons of oil from Singapore’s Horizon Port to Cua Viet Port in the northern Vietnamese city of Quang Tri, the agency said.

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