China steps up effort to rescue 19 sailors

Qin Gang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a media briefing here on Tuesday that China is assessing the situation. Later official Xinhua newsagency quoted him as saying that China has began rescue work. A Singapore-flagged cargo ship was hijacked on Monday in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia.

The MV Golden Blessing, a petroleum and chemical tanker, was on its way to India from Saudi Arabia when it was hijacked. The ship owner said all 19 crew are reported to be safe. China has deployed a naval task force in the Gulf of Aden long back to deal with the series of pirate attacks on Chinese and international ships sailing through it.

Heavily armed pirates using speed boats operate in the Gulf of Aden where they prey on ships, sometimes holding them for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or ship-owners. In 2010, in one of their biggest strikes yet, Somali pirates hijacked eight Indian boats carrying 150 Indian sailors off the Kismayo coast. In 2008, an Indian navy warship, INS Tabar destroyed a suspected Somali pirate vessel after the pirates opened fire at the ship in the Gulf of Aden.