A new Spanish tuna boat escapes a pirate attack

(BRUSSELS2) A Spanish tuna boat - Ortube Berria - who fished off the Seychelles (230 miles west of Mahé, the main island of the Seychelles and near Mombasa, Kenya), was the victim of a pirate attack on 4:40 a.m. (Zulu time, 8:40 a.m. local) Sunday morning.  It was the fishing vessel that was sailing nearby, Intertuna III, which informed the Spanish maritime monitoring center for fishing operations ( Centro de Operaciones de Vigilancia Marítima or COViM).

The dozen pirates mounted aboard two white skiffs carried out the attack, lasting more than 30 minutes, using weapons and an RPG grenade. The private security team on board responded, using their weapons, the Spanish Ministry of Defense confirmed. No damage was sustained by the vessel and the crew is safe and sound.

One of the maritime patrol planes of the European anti-piracy operation, based in the Seychelles, flew over the area. And the commander of the Atalanta operation asked the Portuguese frigate "Alvarez Cabral", which was part of the NATO fleet, to secure the area. The Spanish frigate Canarias was more than 600 miles from the place of the attack, it is specified on the Spanish side (NB: it normally goes back to Spain having completed its mission).