Pirates Attack Cozumel Ferry
Brandishing a grenade and firing assault rifles into the night air, half a dozen hooded pirates attacked a ferry returning from the Caribbean resort isle of Cozumel.
They robbed passengers of money and valuables, threw two security guards overboard and beat a crew member Monday night before speeding off in another boat, local officials said.
The official news agency Notimex said the pirates made off with bags of money from an armored car that was on board.
One of the security guards was rescued by the navy Tuesday morning, but the other is still missing, the attorney general’s office in the coastal town of Playa del Carmen said.
The ferry’s engineer was hospitalized with serious head injuries caused by the beating, said Miguel Martin Azueta, the mayor of Playa del Carmen.
Foreign tourists make up most of the ferry passengers on the route between Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. However, there were no official estimates of how many foreigners were among the 253 passengers on the ferry Mexico I during Monday’s attack.
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