MAHE,
Seychelles - A pirate attack on a tour ship off the coast of Africa endangered
161 people Saturday, including a Fiddletown man, who said he snapped a shot of
the pirates’ boat before one of them, while smiling, fired a grenade-launcher
at the ocean liner.
One person was injured by shrapnel after pirates attacked the cruise ship,
Seabourn Spirit, about 100 miles off the coast of Somalia, firing
rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the deck and staterooms.
“I tell you, it was a very frightening experience,” Charles Supple, of
Fiddletown told the Associated Press by phone Sunday.
Supple, 78, a retired physician and veteran of World War II, said his companion
woke him up and told him there was a boat right beside the cruise liner. He said
the boat held four men in ski masks, dressed in black and armed with assault
rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
“They were very agile in their boat,” he said. “We started hearing these
things going ‘Ping! Ping! Ping!’ all over the ship. Then we realized it was
an attack.”
Supple said he took a picture of the boat and one pirate fired a bazooka at him.
“I dropped the camera and dived. The grenade struck two decks above and about
four rooms further forward. I could tell the guy firing the bazooka was
smiling,” Supple said. “The man with the bazooka aimed it right at me and I
saw a big flash.”
Fiddletown man attacked by African pirates
| Local News |
