KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A Thai oil tanker and 14 crew members onboard were rescued near the northeast coast of Malaysia on Thursday, hours after they were hijacked by a group of pirates, said the Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) Thursday evening.
The ship, MT Tanker MGT1, carried around 2.2 million liters of diesel with an estimated value of 7 million ringgit (1.66 million U.S. dollars) when it disappeared from the Auto Identification System on Wednesday afternoon, said the MMEA in a statement.
With the help of an aircraft, a MMEA Special Task and Rescue Team managed to locate and successfully board the tanker and arrested 10 suspects onboard.
The MMEA said none of the crew members of the tanker and the rescue team suffered any injuries, but three suspects fled the scene, possibly by speedboat which was identified by the aircraft earlier.
The tanker has been escorted to Kuala Terengganu for further investigation while another maritime vessel has been ordered to search for the escaped suspects.
Pirates occasionally target oil tankers in this area. In June, another Thai tanker was robbed of 1.5 million liters of diesel fuel by a group of armed pirates in the Malaysia waters of Kuantan. It was en route from Singapore to southern Thailand.
