Vietnam arrests 8 suspected hijackers of Malaysian tanker Orkim Harmony Vietnamese coast guards are working with one of the eight suspected hijackers of Malaysia's oil tanker Orkim Harmony on June 19, 2015. Tuoi Tre Vietnamese coast guards on Friday arrested eight suspects in the hijacking of Malaysia’s oil tanker Orkim Harmony last week, an officer said. The suspected pirates were detained on Tho Chu Island, off the southern Vietnamese province of Kien Giang, in the Gulf of Thailand after they escaped from the oil tanker, said Colonel Doan Bao Quyet, political commissar of the Vietnam Coast Guard (VCG) Zone 4. They were then escorted to Phu Quoc Island, also a district in Kien Giang, for investigation, he added. All of the eight suspects are Indonesian, according to a tweet by Malaysia's Chief of Navy admiral Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar. The Orkim Harmony was reportedly hijacked off Malaysian coast on June 11 when it was carrying 6,000 tons of gasoline at sea, according to the VCG. Malaysian authorities notified the VCG High Command on June 18 that the ship was in an area bordering the Vietnamese waters, about 23 nautical miles southwest of Tho Chu Island, part of the Phu Quoc District. The Malaysian side then sent a naval ship and a coast guard boat to the site to negotiate with the pirates on board the hijacked vessel. The VCG also sent two ships, CSB 2004 and CSB 2002, there to support their Malaysian counterparts. Malaysia and Australia have also sent their planes to the scene to cope with the hijacking.  At 8 am on Friday, Malaysian authorities informed the VCG that the pirates had released the tanker and fled in its rescue boat. About 90 minutes later, the Border Guard Station of Tho Chu Island reported to the VCG that a rescue boat carrying eight foreigners, purportedly to be the hijackers, had landed at the island. These foreigners told local officers that they had been in distress at sea. The High Command VCG sent its officers and interpreters to the island to coordinate with the local force in questioning the suspects. Initial sources said the hijackers had shot injured a sailor and beat 11 others of the Orkim Harmony, and robbed money and personal property from them before leaving the ship. Major General Nguyen Quang Dam, Commander of the VCG, said that the hijackers re-painted the tanker and replaced the vessel’s IMO (International Maritime Organization) number with a fake one to avoid detection. However, the VCG has closely coordinated with its Malaysian counterparts and other international forces in relentless activities to hunt for the hijacked ship, Major General Dam said. Such joint activities had put great pressure on the pirates, prompting them to leave the ship in an attempt to escape, the official added. According to Malaysian media, the hijacked ship has a crew of 22 members, including 16 Malaysians, five Indonesians and one Burmese citizens. The only injured sailor is an Indonesian cook who was shot by the pirates in the thigh. Malaysian Admiral Abdul Aziz Jaafar aid the pirates managed to slip away by ordering naval vessels to stay at least five nautical miles from the ship or the crew would be harmed, AFP reported on Friday. The Admiral said the Malaysian Navy will investigate the hijacking. According to statistics released in April this year, 38 ship hijacking cases occurred in the waters of Southeast Asia from January to March 2015, accounting to 70 percent of the global number of such cases. Tuoi Tre News