Bangkok Post
One Thai and two Cambodian crew members have suffered serious injuries after their trawler was hijacked by pirates and sunk by an unidentified ship off the Somali coast last week, the navy says.
Thai navy officers, who rescued 23 survivors after they were found floating at sea, have transported Praison Tongsuk, a 28-year-old Thai, and two Cambodians _ Singhahol, 28, and Soimao, 28 _ in the HTMS Similan to the Sultanate of Oman's second largest city, Salalah, for treatment at the hospital there.
The burns on their bodies are severe, a navy spokesman said.
Two other Cambodian crew members _ Sainihol, 19, and Niapong, 43 _ who swallowed contaminated seawater, are also under doctors' treatment after they developed sore throats and sharp pains in their stomachs.
Other survivors, who sustained minor injuries, are staying on a Thai navy ship. Their condition is reportedly improving.
All 23 victims, including a Yemeni policeman, were located by officers after the Sirichai Nava 11, a Yemeni-registered Thai fishing vessel, was hijacked by Somali pirates last Tuesday about 70 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia.
All had been left drifting in the sea.
Five of the crew are still missing, the navy says. They are Thai skipper Nattawat Saengprajan and four Yemeni police.
Officers still cannot identify the vessel that shot at the trawler and sunk it.
The attack occurred as eight Somali pirates forced the Sirichai Nava 11 to sail towards the Somali coast.
The eight pirates were among Somali raiders who hijacked the fishing ship, but two of them left in a speed boat after the raid, a crew member said.
Two navy ships, HTMS Pattani and HTMS Similan, with 351 sailors and 20 special warfare troops on board, were sent to the Gulf of Aden on Sept10 to join the 28-country effort to police shipping lanes off the Somali coast.
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