Italy

Italy special forces board Turkish vessel after alert over unidentified passengers

cde.news desk 10 June 2023, 17:38 · 2 min read

epa10682517 A handout photo made available by Italian Defense, shows the Italian military in action on the merchant ship Galata Seaways, Naples, Italy, 09 June 2023. The attempted seizure by armed assailants on the bridge of a Turkish cargo ship and the SOS launched by Turkish sailors. And shortly after the men of the San Marco Marina Brigade descending from the helicopters to neutralize the group of irregular migrants who had attempted to hijack the ship. The special operation in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Naples, managed to avert the attack of about fifteen migrants, probably coming from the Middle Eastern route, who became pirates in a few moments. An operation which, although the cargo was then escorted to the port of Naples where a police force was deployed, continued with the reclamation of the ship. The merchant ship was carrying trucks and had left from the port of Topcular in Turkey on 7 June bound for France to the port of Seté where it was to land on 10 June but the journey was interrupted near the island of Ischia: after the discovery of the Irregular migrants, perhaps hidden in one of the trucks on board, tried to take possession of the merchant vessel Galata Seaways, putting the twenty-two crew members in check. EPA-EFE/ITALIAN DEFENSE PRESS OFFICE HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

ROME, June 10 (Reuters) – A Turkish cargo vessel that Italian special forces boarded after the crew detected a group of unidentified people on board is now sitting off the southern city of Naples, website MarineTraffic showed, while police continue to investigate the situation.

“Everything ended well,” Italian minister Guido Crosetto wrote on Twitter.

“My congratulations to the guys of the San Marco battalion and the police, who completed a wonderful operation,” he wrote.

Late on Friday, Crosetto had told an event that there were 15 “illegal migrants” on board the vessel, but did not provide details on how they managed to get there or their country of origin.

Ansa news agency reported that prosecutors have ordered police to make checks into what happened and that the migrants have been disembarked.

A Turkish transport ministry statement said on Friday the Galata Seaways roll-on-roll-off cargo vessel was sailing from the Turkish port of Yalova to Sete, France.

It said the crew noticed the presence of other people aboard in the late morning on Friday through security cameras, which showed them wandering around the boat.

The captain told Italian police he issued the alarm after he saw two of them carrying knives, Ansa reported.

The crew locked themselves in the engine room and alerted maritime authorities in Turkey, who in turn contacted Italy and France. They subsequently set sail towards Naples, the statement said.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante, Federica Urso and Yesim Dikmen, editing by Nick Macfie and Hugh Lawson)

Reuters

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Italy special forces board Turkish vessel after alert over unidentified passengers

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