A Vietnamese fisherman was killed and another injured when a speedboat opened fire on them near the Thai border, in an apparent failed pirate attack, news reports said Monday.
The two fishing boats in the Gulf of Thailand came under machine gun fire late Friday, which hit the head of the pilot of one boat and the thigh of the one steering the second.
“The boats are still full of bullets,” the second victim Nguyen Hung Cuong, 41, was quoted as saying by Thanh Nien newspaper, which characterised the incident as a pirate attack.
In the Thanh Nien report, Mr Cuong said the boat carrying the gunmen was flying a Thai flag, and apparently abandoned the attack after shooting up the fishing boats.
The Maritime Police had sent a team to investigate the incident, its deputy commander Col Nguyen Van Ba told the German Press Agency.
Pirates seized a fishing boat in the area two months ago, releasing it for a ransom of US$150,000, news outlet Tuoi Tre reported online.
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