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Somali pirates attack cruise ship

MSC Cruises has confirmed that there was an attempted attack on the MSC Melody cruise ship at the weekend, in waters near the Seychelles Islands. Thankfully, none of the attackers  were able to board the ship and no injuries were sustained by any of the approximately 1,000 passengers or 500 crew members onboard. The  vessel was sailing from Port Victoria in the Seychelles when Somali pirates approached the ship in a small speedboat, firing automatic weapons. MSC Cruises’ security officers fired back as the speedboat approached and the pirates quickly retreated. The cruise operator has subsequently initiated further proactive measures in the interest of safety and security of its ship. An international security forces military vessel has been sent to escort the MSC Melody as a precaution while the ship continues on to Aqaba, Jordan, and all scheduled routes for MSC Melody have been changed effective immediately, as have the routes of ships sailing on similar itineraries.

Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Telegraph.

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8 Comments

  1. This is getting to be a really worrying trend. It’s alarming how easily they’re able to hijack cargo ships – are there no Somali sea laws governing these things?

  2. There was a backlash from this example saying no ships apart from military and police vessels should carry firearms. Personally I think any ship travelling through these pirate waters should have trained firearm staff on board to handle these situations.

  3. This is very worrying indeed. Businesses of all types need to feel safe to travel in this region. It doesn’t seem that Somalia wishes to contribute anything towards this however so it seems to rest with the international community to protect those waters.

  4. The Somalia Pirate’s have been all over the nose in the last year. Due to the extremely poor economic state of Somalia, the other countries are going to have to take it into their hands! The US government can spend billions in iraq, but won’t deal with Somalia. Seems like they could get in there a bit. Somalia is the most dangerous place in the world to travel to, and it is out of control right now! I hope more pirates get arrested liek we have heard as of late.

  5. Pirates are certainly a worry for travellers in any region.

    I did a boat trip around Halong Bay (Vietnam) and we were warned about pirates. I’m still not sure if the warning was to make the trip more ‘exciting’ or whether there really are still pirates there.

  6. For many cruise ships and passengers in this areas it is a worry – but surely the cruise companies must have measures in place to protect their clients, reputation and their assets!

  7. Irene, I don think many cruise ships are going in this area. Besides, they are not in it to hijack cruise ships. They want ships with valuables. People are not valuables to them. They want a commodity that they can hold the crew hostage for (eg. oil). Too much hassle when dealing with people as their commodity.

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