The Malta Maritime Authority has referred the hijacking of a Maltese vessel in Swedish waters on July 24 to the Swedish police.

It has also informing the International Maritime Organisation and the International Maritime Bureau of the incident.

The authority said that the vessel, the Arctic Sea, was hijacked at around 3 a.m. while transiting Swedish waters. It was boarded by a group of eight to 12 people allegedly masked and wearing uniforms bearing the word “police” and armed with guns and pistols.

Access to the vessel was gained using a black coloured rubber boat which allegedly also bore the word “police”. The same craft was used by the assaulting persons to depart from the ship some 12 hours later, heading in an easterly direction from the ship’s position.

During their stay onboard, the members of the crew were allegedly assaulted, tied, gagged, and blindfolded and some of them were seriously injured.

All crew members were ‘hard’ questioned for a considerable amount of time. The questioning was related to drug trafficking. Later all crew members were released from their bindings but were locked within cabins until the alleged police rummaged the vessel thoroughly.

The Maltese authorities have formally taken up this incident with the Swedish authorities who today confirmed that they were not involved in any way in the operation.

The MMA said it was informed that the Russian authorities had also taken up the incident with the Swedish authorities since some of the crew were Russian.