Thefirst incident involved an unnamed chemical tanker underway at high speed beingapproached on 23 March in the Red Sea.
Fiveskiffs each with three persons aboard are said to have approached the ship inposition 13° 18'N, 042° 52'E at 06:30 local time.
Theship’s master raised the alarm after which fire pumps were activated and the onboard armed security team took up positions.
Unconfirmedreports say ladders were noticed in two skiffs as they closed to a distance of1nm from the tanker.
The security team are said to have immediatelyfired one rocket flare towards the skiffs and showed their weapons resulting inthe skiffs aborting their approach.
Threedays later the master of an oil tanker reported being pursued by six skiffs inposition 13° 18'N, 042° 57'E at around 13:23 local time.
Reportssay the skiffs, with an undetermined number of personnel onboard, came within1.8 nautical miles of the ship before abandoning their approach.
Security officials said they recommend vesselswithin the vicinity of this alert operate with a heightened level of securityand report any suspicious activity.
