they detained seven individuals, and we re told the whole operation only took around nine minutes, so a very quick operation. an extremely highly proficient professional service, the sbs. very well known in many parts of the world. we re also told that no members of the crew were hurt during this operation. it was authorised by the home secretary and the defence secretary earlier on this evening at the request of the local police force, hampshire police, and presumably in the intervening hours, that operation was planned and eventually executed this evening. it s not clear what happened with those seven individuals, whether they ve since been taken off the tanker and brought ashore or if they re still on board. it all began at 9am local time here when the crew reported there was some kind of confrontation with stowaways who were on board. they knew the stowaways were there, vut for some reason the stowaways, in the words of the crew, became violent towards the crew. which led the crew
action has been taken. i should say, in dealing with such operations across the world, we have some of the most professional organisations that you can find, not least the sps has already been mentioned, based conveniently down the road in poole. this is a good outcome today. was there at any point there are the events today, what was taking place on board that tanker, was it a security threat to the uk? it would have been deemed a security threat when you do not have a vessel that is this large and a crew, the crew themselves are perhaps taken away to themselves are perhaps taken away to the safe location on board. clearly the government has to react. a whole range of responses would have been considered. not least to say, what is the threat to the mainland? say, what is the threat to the mainland ? what threads say, what is the threat to the mainland? what threads of the crew, as well? fortunately action was taken to prohibit anything developing or moving out of scale.
the first country in the west crushed by the pandemic is seeing a grim history repeating itself, and hopes it s not too late to turn the tide. mark lowen, bbc news, rome. a military operation onboard a tanker in the english channel has ended with the arrest of seven people. it s thought stowaways were causing problems on board the vessel, which had sailed from lagos in nigeria. the bbc‘s duncan kennedy has the latest. it really has been an extraordinary few hours ending with this special forces raid on a tanker in the solent behind me here. that raid involved four helicopters with teams of what s called a special boat service, sbs, special forces. they re based about 50 miles, about 70 km down the coast here. and they landed on the deck of this vessel in their four helicopters and used what was described as overwhelming force to retake the ship.
what we do know is the ship comedy andromeda, sailed from nigeria some three weeks ago. it appears there we re three weeks ago. it appears there were a number of stowaways on board. crucially, we don t know what their motive is. it could be something as straightforward as seeking political asylu m straightforward as seeking political asylum in the uk or it could be something more sinister. but what is clear is at some stage, the crew became aware of these stowaways on board, felt to an extent threatened and therefore locked themselves up in the citadel. so primary concern has to be for the safety of the crew and there could be anywhere between 15-20 and there could be anywhere between 15 20 crew members on board the greek owned ship. of course, the safety of the ship itself other ships in the vicinity will also be a concern to the authorities dealing with the situation at the moment. concern to the authorities dealing with the situation at the momentlj suppose with the situation at the
thank you, and also thank you to guy in madrid. police are investigating an incident on board an oil tanker the nave andromeda in waters off the isle of wight. it s thought stowaways may be causing problems for the crew of the liberian registered vessel, which is positioned south of ventnor. duncan kennedy is in lee on the solent for us this evening. duncan? well, reeta, the nave andromeda was en route from lagos in nigeria to behind me here with a cargo of oil. sources have told the bbc the crew we re sources have told the bbc the crew were aware there were stowaways on board. about nine o clock this morning, apparently these stowaways, it is not clear how many, became violent towards the crew. the crew then took shelter in a secure area on board the ship which they can lock up, and it is from there they alerted the authorities. the coast guard sent out two search and rescue helicopters. it is not clear what assistance they were able to give. the home office say they are aware