Pirates of the Gulf of Guinea tried to seize a Panamanian container ship. The crew gave a distress signal and hid in the hold. Russian marines arrived at the ship — a group of ships of the Northern Fleet has been ensuring the safety of navigation in the region for several weeks. When the Russian helicopter approached the container ship, the pirates escaped. On the evening of October 25, pirates attacked a container ship in the Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of Africa. The first to report this was the Dryad Global portal, specializing in maritime security issues. According to the company, the MSC Lucia container ship was seized by unknown intruders 86 nautical miles southwest of the Agbami terminal (a large oil field off the coast of Nigeria in the Gulf of Guinea, being developed by the American Chevron - "Gazeta.Ru»). Dryad Global reported that a warship was heading to the site of the attack, and recommended that other vessels avoid the area. As it turned out, the large anti-submarine ship of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy "Vice Admiral Kulakov" provided assistance to the attacked vessel. "At about 13 o'clock, a distress signal was received on the Russian ship from the container ship "Lucia", flying the flag of Panama from the Republic of Togo to the Republic of Cameroon. It was reported about an attempt to seize the vessel by unknown armed men on a high-speed boat, " the press service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said. According to the agency, after the distress signal, the crew of the merchant vessel took refuge in the engine room in accordance with the instructions. A Ka-27PS helicopter with a marine unit was lifted into the air from the Russian ship to help the sailors. "When a military helicopter approached, the pirates left the ship, boarded a high-speed boat and headed towards the shore at full speed," the Defense Ministry said. The Russian military did not pursue the pirates. After a control flyby, the "Vice Admiral Kulakov" approached the container ship, from which an anti-terrorist group landed on board the Panamanian vessel. The military conducted an inspection of the vessel and found the sailors locked in the engine room. "Vice Admiral Kulakov" together with the medium sea tanker "Akademik Pashin" and the rescue vessel "Altai" have been operating in the Gulf of Guinea for three weeks. They went on a hike from Severodvinsk at the end of June. First, the crew of the BOD took part in the naval parade in Kronstadt, then participated in the training of Russian sailors in the Atlantic. In August-September, Vice Admiral Kulakov operated in the Mediterranean Sea, called in Algeria, Syria, Cyprus, and now Russian ships ensure the safety of civil navigation and monitor the surface situation with the help of aviation off the western coast of Africa. According to the MarineTraffic service, the MSC Lucia container ship was launched in 1985 and flies the flag of Panama. The 190-meter vessel is capable of carrying up to 1893 TEU containers. Now it is still in the Gulf of Guinea and is moving to the port of Cameroon's largest city Douala.
