MALAYSIA: Malaysia detained a Chinese-registered vessel suspected of looting two British Second World War shipwrecks.
According to the BBC, the bulk carrier was seized for anchoring illegally at the site in the South China Sea.
Ammunition believed to be from the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, which were sunk by Japanese forces more than 80 years ago, was then found on board.
The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence had condemned the alleged raid as the “desecration” of maritime war graves.
Scavengers have hit historical shipwrecks for low-radiation steel and scrap metal for years. Their resting site is on the bed of the South China Sea, some 100km off the east coast of Malaysia.
The British Navy battleships, dispatched to Singapore during the Second World War to shore up the defence of Malaya, were sunk by Japanese torpedoes on 10 December 1941.
The strike – three days after the attack on the United States fleet in Pearl Harbour killed some 842 sailors and is considered one of the worst disasters in British naval history.
Fishermen reported the presence of the foreign vessel to Malaysian authorities the previous month.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said local maritime police detained the Chinese ship on Sunday. The ship registered in Fuzhou had 32 crew on board.
Cannon shells “suspected to be from Second World War ” were uncovered during the vessel search. Malaysian agencies are investigating the provenance of the ammunition.
The MMEA said it is linked to the cache of unexploded artillery, said to be from the two sunken vessels, that police seized from a private scrap yard in the southern state of Johor earlier this month.
In 2017, during a tour of Malaysia, a local diver showed the then Prince Charles pictures that documented damage to the HMS Prince of Wales inflicted by scavengers.
The Defence Secretary at the time responded by saying the United Kingdom would work with Malaysian and Indonesian governments to investigate claims that up to six British warships had been plundered in their waters.
