Nairobi, Nov 18 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Somali pirates have attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in less than a year. However it is learnt that the private guards, which were present on the U.S. -flagged ship, repelled the attack with gunfire and a loud screeching device.

The attack was overseen by an U.S. surveillance plane, which was monitoring the cargo ship. It may be recalled that pirates had hijacked the Maersk Alabama in last April and they had even taken the ship captain Richard Phillips hostage, holding him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for five days. And then a reverse defense attack was launched to rescue him and navy SEAL sharpshooters successfully freed ship captain Richard Phillips and also killed three pirates in a daring nighttime attack.

In the current attack it is learnt that, Somali pirates attacked the ship with automatic weapons early on Wednesday when it was about 350 nautical miles east of the Somali coast. The attack couldn’t be successful because alert and agile guards on board the craft fired back and thwarted the attempted hijacking.

Cmdr. John Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force, called it “pure chance” that the Maersk Alabama had been targeted a second time.

“It’s not the first vessel to have been attacked twice, and it’s a chance that every single ship takes as it passes through the area,” Harbour said. “At least this time they had a vessel protection detachment on board who were able to repel the attack.”