LONDON (Reuters) – British police said on Sunday they were dealing with an incident aboard a vessel near the coast of the Isle of Wight, an island off the southern coast of England.
Sky News said the vessel was the oil tanker Nave Andromeda and that the incident involved a small number of stowaways.
Police did not immediately confirm these details to Reuters. Britain’s interior ministry, which is responsible for border control, did not have any immediate comment.
The local police force said in a statement, “We are aware and dealing with an ongoing incident on board a vessel which is situated south of the Isle of Wight”.
The coastguard agency said search and rescue helicopters were attending the incident but did not give details.
Lawmaker Bob Seely, who represents the Isle of Wight constituency closest to the vessel, told Sky News he expected the incident to be handled by marine counter-terrorism forces, but that it was too early to call it a hijacking.
Refinitiv vessel tracking data showed the Liberia-flagged Nave Andromeda had been expected to arrive in the English port of Southampton at 1030 GMT on Sunday. The vessel had departed from Lagos, Nigeria, the data showed.
In December 2018 British forces stormed an Italian cargo ship and regained control after stowaways threatened crew members as it sailed close to the coast of southeast England.
(Reporting by William James; Editing by Catherine Evans, Raissa Kasolowsky and Frances Kerry)
