In a daring nighttime raid, British SBS commandos stormed a tanker off the Isle of Wight. They took into custody seven stowaways who were also suspected of being hijackers. 

The captain of the Nave Andromeda sent out a distress signal and asked for assistance the stowaways, all believed to be from Nigeria, threatened the crew with violence as the tanker approached the English shore. 

The ship had left Lagos, Nigeria, and was due to dock in Southhampton, England on Sunday morning. 

Navios Maritime Holdings, which owns the Greek flagged Nave Andromeda, released a statement saying that the ship’s captain radioed British authorities that stowaways had been found on board, as “he was concerned for the safety of the crew due to the increasingly hostile behavior of the stowaways.”