Singapore:

Officers from the Police Coast Guard (PCG) boarded the vessel on February 28 at 8.20 am and saw a crew member lying on the ship’s main deck, bleeding from his right eye.

A 29-year-old injured Indian national is in a stable condition and has been discharged from a Singapore hospital following an incident of illegal boarding by unknown suspects of a chemical tanker in the Singapore Strait, a media report said on Friday.

Seeing that his injuries were serious, PCG Inspector Muhammad Rasidi Suriade told two of his officers to stay with the injured man, while the remaining four officers turned their attention to finding the suspects on board the ship.

“Someone was injured, and his life could have been on the line. We had to clear the main deck as fast as possible, so he could be evacuated quickly and receive medical help,” The Straits Times quoted Inspector Rasidi as recalling the incident at the Brani Base of PCG on Wednesday.

But before locating them, Rasidi said he and his team had to gather every crew member and ensure they were accounted for. In around 20 minutes, Rasidi and his team cleared the main deck, and the Singapore Civil Defence Force attended to the casualty and evacuated him.

Rasidi recounted the “unauthorised boarding” incident that happened in the Singapore Strait, outside Singapore territorial waters. His team on the PCG boat rushed to the scene following a call on February 28 about a Singapore-registered chemical tanker being boarded illegally by unknown suspects.

The inspector added, “We needed to rule out the possibility a perpetrator was posing as a crew member, or that someone else was injured on another part of the ship.” The PCG officers verified the passports of more than 20 people, matching their faces to their identity photos.

As this happened, a PCG patrol boat stood guard beside the chemical tanker, which is the size of around five Olympic swimming pools and more than 50 times the size of the PCG patrol boat. After two hours of sweeping the entire tanker, no perpetrators were found on board. The police said investigations are ongoing.

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