Police and HM Coastguard dealing with incident on tanker off the Isle of Wight (update 9)

An incident on board an oil tanker off the coast of Luccombe, Isle of Wight has attracted national news interest.

A five-nautical-mile restriction zone has been placed in the air around the vessel, Nave Andromeda, which has travelled from Nigeria, heading for Southampton.

Reports of stowaways
Police and HM Coastguard are dealing with an incident of reported stowaways on board the tanker that has been circling off the Island this afternoon. Lawyers for the vessel’s owners say it is “100% not a hijacking”.

The BBC say the vessel’s owner has known for sometime that there were seven stowaways were on board. They say verbal threats were made and the stowaways were unhappy about being locked away in a room.

The Ministry of Defence told the BBC earlier today that there is no military involvement in the operation. That seemed to change by the evening.

Update 20.20
Two hefty sounding choppers leaving the scene heading west – leaving no trace.

Update 20.18
All over in 9 minutes

The SBS operation on #NaveAndromeda was over in 9 minutes BBC has been told. #IsleofWight— Jonathan Beale (@bealejonathan) October 25, 2020

Update 20.10
BBC Defence Correspondent’s Jonathan Beale confirmed the conclusion of the operation.

The BBC told that military operation on #NaveAndromeda tanker has been successfully completed. 2 Royal Navy wildcat helicopters and 2 Navy Merlin Mark 4 helicopters and a SBS team .7 individuals detained after they were met by “overwhelming force “ . Crew all safe in citadel— Jonathan Beale (@bealejonathan) October 25, 2020

Update 20.00
All helicopters appear to have left. Blues lights are still surrounding the ship. Lights on board seem to have gone off again, can’t see the bridge anymore.

Update 19.45
One helicopter has left the scene at high speed, the others remain.

Update 19.27
Three helicopters surround the vessel and boats with flashing blue lights.

One helicopter is circling at high altitude. Spotlights are being shone onto the bridge of the vessel.

Update 18.18
Carl Dinnen from ITV has tweeted:

BREAKING I understand military assistance has now been requested to deal with the tanker incident off the Isle of Wight. Likely to involve Special Forces.— Carl Dinnen (@carldinnen) October 25, 2020

Thanks to the Shipfinder and Planefinder Apps – built on the Isle of Wight – you can see the route of the Nave Andromeda, as well as the route taken by the Coastguard helicopter earlier this afternoon as it circled the tanker.

Whether it is connected or not is unknown at the moment, but the Royal Navy Bomb Disposal unit boarded the 6pm ferry from Portsmouth to the Island.

Thanks to Matthew Whittaker for sharing via his Twitter account.

Follow the route
You can follow the movements of the Nave andromeda via the Shipfinder Website.

Article edit
4.05pm – Extra info from BBC added
6.18pm – Tweet from ITV journalist added
6.29pm – Photo from Matthew Whittaker added
7.45pm+ – Updates of action added

Source: Sky News and BBC
Image: © Shipfinder