Dutch police have arrested a 22-year-old suspect for his alleged involvement in a bomb threat hoax on the 4 870-TEU MSC Lorena last month.
The vessel had been sailing from Senegal to Antwerp when an anonymous caller told Belgian police on December 22 that there would be an explosion on the vessel shortly after it was expected to arrive in port.
The Panama-flagged container vessel was then diverted and did not call at the Port of Antwerp as scheduled, and instead sailed back to Wielingen-Noord anchorage area, near Breskens. The vessel, with 20 crew members on board, remained anchored for a week while Dutch national police investigated the bomb scare. It was eventually cleared to sail to Antwerp on December 29.
According to Maritime Executive, the suspect remains in police custody and is facing charges related to terrorism for the bomb scare. The police told the local media in the Netherlands that they had not ruled out additional arrests in the case. The investigation is ongoing.
The vessel departed from Antwerp on January 4, headed for Lome, Togo where it is expected to dock on January 14. The box ship operates on a route that includes calls at the African ports of Lome; Lagos, Nigeria; Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; and Dakar, Senegal, where it had departed on December 16 bound for Antwerp.
