Reports say an unnamed Hong Kong-flagged vessel came under attack this morning while on route from Saudi Arabia to Mozambique.
One skiff with five heavily armed pirates approached the product carrier near Mombasa, according to the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre.
“The pirates fired at the tanker and the armed security on board returned fire. The skiff aborted the attack and moved away,” the report said.
The attack comes less than a month after armed guards repelled a similar attempt on a Sinochem VLCC.
Piracy levels are at a seven year low and only two ships have been hijacked off Somalia in 2013, according to a recent IMB report.
