The Malta Maritime Authority said this afternoon that a Malta-registered cargo ship which disappeared late last month as it approached the English Channel is believed to have headed out into the Atlantic because it did not approach the Straits of Gibraltar.
The Finnish-owned MV Arctic Sea, carrying timber, was reportedly boarded in Swedish waters on July 24 by up to 12 armed men purporting to be anti-drugs police.
The ship made a mandatory radio call to British Coastguards on July 28 as it prepared to enter the sea lanes in the Strait of Dover.
The person on board told Dover Coastguard that the ship was due to arrive in Bejaia in Northern Algeria on August 4.
It was last recorded on a ship tracking system off the coast of Brest, northern France, on July 30 and it was apparently spotted afterwards by a Portuguese coastal patrol plane. It has since disappeared.
The MMA said there had been no communication with the ship and it was continuing to work with various jurisdictions to establish the ship's location and the wellbeing of the Russian crew.
The activity of the MMA is being overseen by a security committee which meets daily. It is composed of representatives of the police, the AFM and the MMA.
Meanwhile, the story was today given prominence by Sky News and The Sun, the latter featuring it on the front page.
Sky News reported how 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.
The coordinated attack - against a 15-strong Russian crew - was launched from a black-coloured rubber inflatable bearing "Police" markings, by assailants armed with guns and pistols and wearing masks and uniforms.
The Russian Navy has also joined in the search.
"Under the orders of President Dmitry Medvedev all Russian navy ships in the Atlantic have been sent to join the search for the Arctic Sea," news agency Itar Tass quoted Navy commander, Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, as saying.
See also
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090810/local/maltese-flagged-ship-literally-disappeared