Police seize hijacked tanker

AN OIL tanker which was believed to have been hijacked by pirates in the South China Sea has reappeared in southern China,writes Richard Lloyd Parry in Kuala Lumpur.

The Singapore agents for the Malaysian-owned Petro Ranger said yesterday that Indonesian pirates boarded the ship and siphoned off most of its cargo of 11,000 tonnes of diesel oil and kerosene worth $1.5m. They denied claims by the Chinese foreign ministry that the pirates were members of the ship's own crew. The vessel turned up on Friday in the port of Haikou, in China's southernmost Hainan Island, two weeks after leaving Singapore en route to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Hainan police have detained 12 Indonesians on charges of piracy, smuggling and illegal entry.