Pirates two pronged attack

Pirates  kidnapped two seafarers from a tanker off the Niger Delta on last week after gunmen boarded 9,267dwt Eckhardt  and took control of the vessel.

 Associated Press report the pirates took both the captain and chief engineer hostage.

However an attack  the 305,000-dwt Star II  in the Gulf of Aden this week was foiled when a German naval helicopter fired warning shots  forcing the pirates to surrender.

When a German naval boarding party searched the skiff there were no weapons and the men were released.

The Star II had loaded a crude cargo in the Persian Gulf last month and was bound for Egypt.