"The tugboat’s crew put out a distress call. The attack is going on now," Noel Choong, regional manager of the Piracy Reporting Centre of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), told AFP at 7:20 p.m. (1120 GMT).
"The pirates are on board the boat. We are communicating the details of the attack to the Malaysian marine police so that they can dispatch a patrol craft to rescue the crew," he said.
An official with the Marine Rescue Coordinating Centre in Port Klang, west of Kuala Lumpur told AFP that the pirates have kidnapped three people – the captain, chief engineer and a crewmember.
The name of the tugboat is Idaten, and it was towing the barge Kuroshio 1, he said on condition of anonymity. The contents of the barge and the fate of other crewmembers are unknown.
According to a Kyodo news report from Japan two of the kidnapped crew were Japanese, the third a Filipino.
In Manila, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) yesterday identified the Filipino as Edgardo Pagliawan Sadang, 31. The two other captives are boat captain Nobuo Inoue and chief engineer Shunji Kuroda.
"We are in close coordination with Malaysian authorities on this matter," said DFA executive director Pedro Chan of the Office of Migrant Workers Affairs.
Chan said the government was not informed of the pirates’ demands in exchange for the release of the hostages. He added that the shipping company will be the one to negotiate for their release.
"Our job is to monitor the situation. Since this (vessel) is Japanese owned, the Japanese owners will be negotiating," Chan said.
Abdul Rahman Ahmad, marine police commander, told Agence France Presse that navy gunboats and marine patrol craft have been deployed to rescue the crew.
The attack took place 39 nautical miles southwest of the northern Penang Island, he said.
"We have directed our boats there," Abdul Rahman said.
The Japanese coast guard said the Idaten is owned by Kondo Kaiji, a shipping company in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, in southwestern Japan. Eight of the 14 crewmembers aboard were Japanese.
Sadang is the second Filipino to be abducted in a foreign country since Filipino accountant Robert Tarongoy was kidnapped by Islamic militants in Iraq on Nov. 1, 2004.
"We are awaiting reports from our embassy in Malaysia. We will talk to the Japanese owners (about) what the demands are," Chan said.
Choong reported earlier Monday that a gang of 35 pirates armed with machine guns and rocket launchers seized a loaded gas tanker in the strait over the weekend, rekindling fears of a terrorist attack in the vital waterway.
The tanker was released but the captain and chief engineer were kidnapped and the pirates were demanding a ransom, Choong told AFP.
The 1,289-tonne Indonesian-owned MT Tri Samudra was carrying a cargo of methane gas from Samarinda in Kalimantan province on Borneo to Belawan on Sumatra when it was boarded in the early evening on Saturday, Choong said.
"The pirates attacked the ship as it was heading towards Belawan and ordered it to sail to Dumai (also in Sumatra). During the journey to Dumai the captain and chief engineer were kidnapped and taken off the ship."
The ship, sailed by the remaining crewmembers, arrived in Dumai on Sunday.
"The status of captain and chief engineer are unknown. The hijackers are negotiating with the ship’s owners for their release," he said.
The ship’s owners believe the pirates were rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence for Aceh province in the north of Sumatra island, Choong said. — With Pia Lee-Brago