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Nave Andromeda off the coast of the Isle of Wight
Photo: - / dpa
An oil tanker off the coast of the Isle of Wight employs security forces in the UK.
According to the police, there are several stowaways on the "Nave Andromeda", which sails under the Liberian flag.
They had verbally threatened the crew of the ship, it was said.
There were therefore no injuries.
Coast guards and border officials are now trying to bring the situation off the coast to a safe end, it said.
The owner's lawyers rule out kidnapping
According to consistent British media reports, the military is said to have been called in for support.
This was not officially confirmed at first.
Previously, an area of several nautical miles around the tanker had been declared a restricted area.
Helicopters and coast guard forces were in action.
Local media initially assumed an attempted kidnapping, but the shipowner's lawyers ruled this out, according to the BBC.
Tanker should have docked in Southhampton long ago
The local station Isle of Wight Radio continued the operation in the evening.
According to the Marinetraffic website, the "Nave Andromeda" is only a few kilometers off the coast of the Isle of Wight in southern England.
Two British lifeboats were in the immediate vicinity.
The 228-meter-long and more than 42,000-tonne oil tanker left Nigeria in early October and was supposed to have arrived in the port of Southampton on Sunday morning.
However, the argument with the stowaways probably prevented the arrival at first.
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fek / dpa / Reuters
