Taiwanese boat with 8 Pinoys retakes vessel from pirates

The crew of a Taiwanese fishing vessel hijacked by pirates off Somalia last Friday managed to overpower their captors and retake their vessel before dawn Sunday, Taiwanese authorities said. A report on Taiwan's Central News Agency quoted Taiwan's Fisheries Agency as saying the crew of the Chin Yi Wen — eight of them Filipinos — escaped to safety with the help of British anti-piracy vessels. But three crew members sustained slight injuries during the fight, the CNA report quoted the agency as saying. The nationalities of the three were not immediately known. The CNA report said Taiwan's Fisheries Agency had been in close contact with the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) and the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) on the hijacking. It said the 260-ton Kaohsiung-registered Chin Yi Wen with 28 crew members aboard rendezvoused with UKMTO-authorized British anti-piracy vessels in the Indian Ocean around 4 a.m. Sunday. The boat has been heading toward Port Victoria in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Seychelles since its escape, the agency said. It is expected to arrive in the Seychelles port within 40 hours, under the escort of British and Seychelles vessels, it said. Members of the crew included nine Chinese, eight Filipinos, six Indonesians and five Vietnamese. The ship was lost Friday, when it was believed to have been seized by Somali pirates. "In my memory, this is the first time sailors of a fishing vessel hijacked by Somali pirates have freed themselves on their own," Agence France Pressed quoted Tsay Tzu-yaw, spokesman for Taiwan's Fisheries Agency, as saying. Tsay quoted the fishing boat's owner as saying the Somali pirates fell into the sea, although other details of the incident were not immediately clear. According to Tsay, three sailors were slightly injured and the ship was heading for waters of the Seychelles. Radio Netherlands Worldwide cited a report by Ecoterra International that at least 47 foreign vessels and more than 500 sailors are being held by pirates. - KBK, GMA News