Somali Piracy: Seafarers of Chinese Ship Zhenhua 4 Successfully Fight Back

Seafarers of Chinese Ship Zhenhua 4, used all resources available on board to fight back when the vessel was attacked by Somali pirates. The seafaring community appreciates the brave fight put up by Chinese seafarers.

Some of the interesting features are:

Nine Somali pirates armed with rocket launchers and heavy machine guns attacked Zhenhua 4 owned by China Communications Construction Co. on December 17.
For almost four hours, the 30 crew members used all resources available onboard like water cannon, homemade incendiary bombs, beer bottles and other missiles to prevent the pirates from boarding the vessel.
Despite tough resistance from the crew, the pirates managed to board the vessel. The crew members locked themselves in their accommodation area to avoid themselves to be taken as hostages and also radioed for help.
Immediately the Royal Malaysian Navy’s warship and her armed helicopter from the multi national coalition force came for rescue. On seeing the helicopter firing warning shots, the pirates disembarked from the vessel and went back in their speed boats.
The operation came to an end after five hours with no injury or death to ships crew.

Further developments relating to Somali piracy are:

United Nations Security Council vide press release SC/9541 dated December 16 has authorized states to use land based operations in Somalia as part of fight against piracy off Somali coast.
Interestingly China is also planning to send their warships to join fight against piracy off Somali coast.

The photographs are from Xinhua News, showing Chinese seafarers fighting the Somali pirates.

For more interesting photographs and more details, log on to Xinhua News.