Thoresen Thai Agencies has had one of its ships hijacked by pirates barely two days after another in the fleet escaped seizure.
The Christmas Day hijacking of the 20,400-dwt Thor Nexus took place about 450 miles north-east of the Yemeni island of Socotra.
Little is known of the circumstances of the 1989-built general cargoship’s seizure except that it occurred in the early hours of the 25 December.
There are 27 crew members onboard who are all believed to be Thai nationals, according to counter-piracy force EU NAVFOR. There are no reports of any injuries.
The Thai-flagged ship was en route from Jebel Ali in UAE to Bangladesh when it was taken. It is understood not to have sent out any distress signal with the first authorities knew of the incident being when the master got in contact to say the ship had been pirated.
Another of the Bangkok-based owner’s ships was more fortunate on Wednesday night after coming under heavy fire from pirates. An attempt was made to board the 18,100-dwt Thor Nautilus (built 1988) some 900 miles north-east of the Puntland pirate stronghold of Eyl.
The hijacking was thwarted, however, by the implementation of best management practice, in particular the placing or razor wire around the deck. It is not known if the Thor Nexus had any such measures in place.
