Taipei, Oct. 8 (CNA) The status of a Taiwanese fishing boat suspected of being hijacked in the Indian Ocean not far from Mauritius remained unclear as of Friday evening, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official has said.
The ministry was informed by the Council of Agriculture's Fisheries Agency at noon Wednesday that the vessel "Feng Guo 168, " with a Taiwanese captain, eight Vietnamese, two Indonesians and three Chinese on board, might have been hijacked in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the island country.
The ministry was still unsure whether the boat had been hijacked by pirates or its own crew on board, MOFA spokesman James Chang said.
France, which sent a reconnaissance aircraft to locate the ship and has monitored its course since Wednesday, has agreed to continue its assistance, Chang said.
The vessel is now heading south to Mauritius after sailing north Thursday.
The MOFA also officially requested the assistance of Mauritius' government to ensure safety of the longliner in the country's EEZ.
The ministry said it has been trying to gather information about the ship through its representative offices in South Africa and France as well as Taiwanese fishery officials in Mauritius.
It has also sought the assistance of the Malaysia-based Piracy Reporting Center of the International Maritime Bureau and the maritime liaison office of America's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls