Cruise passengers dodge pirates

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-10  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A CRUISE ship will remove passengers before sailing through waters off the Somali coast and fly them to the next port of call to protect them from possible pirate attacks, German cruise operator Hapag-Lloyd said yesterday.

An official with the European Union's anti-piracy mission said separately that the force would station armed guards on vulnerable cargo ships in the Gulf of Aden.

The MS Columbus cruise ship will drop off its 246 passengers before the ship and some of its crew sail through the gulf today, said the Hamburg-based company. It said the passengers would take a charter flight to Dubai and spend three days at a five-star hotel waiting to rejoin the 150-meter vessel in the southern Oman port of Salalah for the remainder of a round-the-world tour that began in Italy.

The company said it was sending its passengers on the detour as a "precautionary measure," given rampant piracy off the coast of Somalia that recently has targeted cruise ships as well as commercial vessels, including a Saudi oil tanker and a Ukrainian ship carrying tanks and other weapons.

Last week, pirates fired upon the M/S Nautica, a cruise liner carrying 650 passengers and 400 crew members, but the massive ship quickly outran its assailants. Other ships have not been so lucky. Pirates have attacked 32 vessels and hijacked 12 of them since NATO deployed a four-vessel flotilla on October 24 to escort cargo ships and conduct anti-piracy patrols.

An EU anti-piracy mission, which will take over for the NATO ships next week, may also involve stationing armed guards on the most vulnerable cargo ships in high-risk areas, the British naval commander in charge of the mission said yesterday.

British Vice-Admiral Philip Jones said the guards could be placed on some ships transporting food aid to Somalia.