(22 Apr 2008) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of people on the beach, swimming off the coast of Aden
2. People swimming in sea, boats in the background
3. Wide of boats
4. Mid of boat
5. Various of boats
6. Three boats, the middle boat, orange colour is Japanese oil tanker
7. Various of Japanese oil tanker
STORYLINE
A suspected pirate ship fired on a Japanese oil tanker on Monday off the eastern coast of Yemen, leaving a hole from which hundreds of gallons of fuel leaked, officials said.
No one was injured.
AP Television filmed footage of the orange-coloured tanker off the coast of Aden.
The 150-thousand-ton tanker Takayama was attacked about 270 miles (435 kilometres) off the coast of Aden in southwestern Yemen while it was heading for Saudi Arabia, its Japanese operator Nippon Yusen K.K., said in a statement.
None of its 23 crew members, seven Japanese and 16 Filipinos, were injured, the company said.
The vessel left the South Korean port of Ulsan on April 4.
A spokesperson for Nippon Yusen said the attack left a 1-inch (two and half centimetre) hole in the tanker's stern, which was temporarily patched after hundreds of gallons of fuel leaked.
The spokesperson said the tanker was heading to Aden for repairs, and its itinerary could change depending on the extent of the damage.
A Japanese Transportation Ministry official said the attackers were believed to be pirates whose motive was not immediately known.
The waters in the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and Somalia are considered prone to pirate attacks.
In late October, a Panamanian-registered chemical tanker operated by a Japanese shipping company was seized by pirates in nearby waters off Somalia's coast.
All but one of its 23 crew members were freed unharmed in mid-December.
More than 260 vessels, including 10 Japanese ships, were attacked by pirates last year worldwide, officials said, quoting International Maritime Bureau figures.
Nearly 40 percent of the pirate attacks occurred off the coasts of Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen, where the number of incidents surged from the previous year.
Kyodo News agency said the tanker was hit by a rocket fired from a small boat.
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