Pirate suspects held by Vietnam 'speak Indonesian'

Hanoi

EIGHT men detained by Vietnam on suspicion of hijacking a Malaysian-flagged tanker speak Indonesian and were carrying large amounts of cash when they were apprehended, state media reported on Sunday. The group were taken into custody on Friday after they pulled up to Vietnam's south-western Tho Chu island in a lifeboat claiming to have encountered an accident at sea.

The same day, Malaysian authorities said that eight men who had commandeered the MT Orkim Harmony a week earlier had managed to give warships the slip by escaping in a lifeboat under cover of darkness. The vessel was the latest to be targeted by increasingly bold pirates behind an upsurge of sea hijackings in South-east Asia in the past two years that have typically targeted smaller tankers carrying valuable petrol, diesel or gas oil.