Gunmen fired shots at an offshore vessel off Mexico over the weekend, it has emerged.
The attack involving the unnamed cable-layer took place 13 nautical miles (24km) off Dos Bocas in the early hours of 4 April.
Piracy reporting body ICC said the ship was near the HSP platform at the time.
Crew members noticed a boat with eight people on board approaching at a high speed.
They raised the alarm, locked down the accommodation and mustered.
As the skiff approached from the stern, the assailants started firing at the vessel.
The master used thrusters to prevent the boat from coming alongside and the assailants aborted their approach.
Rare attack
The crew notified the port authority of the incident and a patrol boat was dispatched to the location.
Attacks off Mexico are rare, but not unknown.
In November, two crew were injured after armed pirates boarded an Italian platform supply vessel off Mexico.
The attack involved between seven and eight gunmen who approached the 2,700-dwt Remas (built 2011) using two speedboats in the Gulf of Mexico.
They opened fire on the seafarers and stole items before fleeing.
One crewman was shot in the knee and another struck by a blunt instrument.
There were 35 people on the vessel at the time, including an officer from the Mexican merchant navy, who then coordinated contact with the local authorities.
The two wounded men were taken ashore in Ciudad de Carmen, where the Remas arrived escorted by a Mexican military unit.
Security consultancy Dryad Global said at the time it had no record of attacks in the region.
"Incidents here would be a very unusual occurrence," it told TradeWinds.
