A Belgian dredging vessel with 10 multinational crew members on board was suspected of being hijacked by pirates 150 km off the Victoria port of the Seychelles on Saturday morning, a spokesman of the Belgian government crisis center said Saturday.
Benedict Ramacker told journalists in Brussels that the dredger has been spotted by a helicopter and it appeared to be on its way to a Somali port.
A small boat was spotted next to the vessel, which suggests that it probably have been hijacked by pirates, he said.
Ramacker said so far there had been no contact with the hijackers.
Ten crew members were on board the ship, the Pompei, when it went missing early Saturday morning 700 km east of the Somali coast. They are four Croatians, three Philipinos, two Belgians and one Dutchman, the spokesman said.
The Pompei, which is owned by Belgian dredging firms Jan De Nuland DEME, sounded alarms three times early Saturday morning, including two silent alarms, when it was en route to the Seychelles.
The signals were received by various coastguard stations in thearea and was passed on to the Belgian coastguard. Since then the ship has lost contact with the outside world, Ramacker said.
In Brussels, representatives of Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, ministries of transport, justice, interior, defense and foreign affairs, as well as companies that chartered the ship, having been holding emergency meetings on Saturday. Families of the crew members have been alerted
The Pompei, which is used to shield oil pipelines by covering them in a blanket of stones, regularly sails off the Somali coast.
Source:Xinhua
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