One tanker attacked in S-E Asia every 2 weeks: piracy watchdog

Kuala Lumpur

PIRATES attack one small coastal oil tanker every two weeks in the waters off South-east Asia, which remained the world's piracy hotspot in the first quarter of 2015, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Tuesday.

South-east Asia saw 38 pirate attacks during January-March or 70 per cent of the global total of 54, according to the latest quarterly report by the bureau's Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Centre.

"The frequency of these hijackings in South-east Asia is an increasing cause for concern," the IMB's director Pottengal Mukundan said in a statement, warning that…