Maritime pirate attacks worldwide shot up 14 percent in the first nine months of 2007 from a year earlier, with Somalia and Nigeria showing the biggest increases, an international watchdog said Tuesday..
A total of 198 attacks on ships were reported between January and September this year, up from 174 in the same period in 2006, the IMB said. It said a total of 15 vessels were hijacked, 63 crew kidnapped and three killed.
"If this current trend continues, it would appear that the decline in piracy attacks since 2004 has bottomed out," it warned.
Indonesia remained the world's worst piracy hotspot, with 37 attacks in the first nine months of 2007 — but that was an improvement from 40 in the same period a year earlier, the IMB said.
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