China is making a concerted attempt to rescue members of a bulk carrier seized by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, a government spokesman said."The Chinese government takes this seriously, and is making an all-out effort to rescue the crew members of the ship," the Foreign Ministry's Ma Zhaoxu said in Beijing today at a regular press briefing. He declined to give any details.
The Chinese Navy is preparing a rescue plan now, Radio Television Hong Kong reported, citing military sources that it didn't identify. The vessel is the 76,432 deadweight-ton De Xin Hai with 25 Chinese crew members on board, Andrew Mwangura, head of the Seafarers' Assistance Program, said in a mobile-phone text message yesterday.
The ship, which hadn't registered with naval forces in the area, was hijacked 550 nautical miles (1,020 kilometers) northeast of the Seychelles islands and 700 nautical miles east of Somalia, the European Union said in a statement. A maritime patrol plane has been sent to investigate.
The seizure brings to six the number of ships that are being held by the pirates, who operate out of lawless towns on the eastern coast of Somalia. A Singaporean container ship was seized Oct. 15 about 300 nautical miles north of the Seychelles.
Since the end of the monsoon last month, almost all pirate attacks have been in the Indian Ocean, and not in the heavily patrolled Gulf of Aden, which leads to the Suez Canal.
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