A vessel belonging to Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company has become a victim of Romanian pirates’ attack.

The press service reported: “The incident that happened last week near Romanian port of Constanţa, convincingly evidenced the fact that the neighbouring country does not provide order and safety of navigation on the Danube within its territory. River piracy boosts. The dangerous area is the canal Cernavodă— Constanţa, before the sluice Adjidja. According to the information available, ships belonging to different companies had been attacked there. The last victim of Romanian pirates was a vessel of Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company”.

They also informed, the convoy lead by M/V Zvezdny proceeding to Constanţa, and carrying two compartments of metal and two of grain, was attacked on September 23, at 18:00. In compliance with the Sluice Master’s order, the vessel anchored at the outer harbour of the sluice to undergo inspection and then enter the port. The pilot and the agent were on board. The coastguard, representatives of the master’s office and doctors were expected to arrive for the vessel to pass through the formalities. At his time several cars drove up to the vessel, some Gipsy people got out of the cars. Having jumped on board the vessel, the section where the scrap metal was, they started to manually discharge the cargo on the shore and load it in the cars. The captain’s attempts to prevent them from doing that failed — the attackers were aggressive and they kept discharging the vessel no matter what.

The captain managed to get the ships stern away from the shore, while the police was expected. The attackers started jumping of the compartment which allowed to get the bow away from the berth as well. Police representative arrived 30 minutes later. He refused to investigate the case saying the police officers’ wages had been reduced and no one would want to work after 18:00. At the same time the attackers managed to drive up a lorry and load it with 5 tons of scrap metal. About 2 tons of cargo remained onshore and the crew had to load it back on the vessel afterwards. After the port formalities the ship proceeded to the port of Constanţa.

The press service added, the agents, on behalf of the captain, sent notices of what had happened to the administration of the canal, to the police, Constanţa port master’s office, and the captain declared maritime protest.

Ukrainian Danube Shipping informed Ukrainian Embassy in Romania and the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine of what had happened. There is an appeal to the Danube Commission.

The loss is being estimated.