The Royal Thai Navy confirms that one of its ships sustained damage after being deliberately struck by a vessel involved in illegal fishing near Thailand's maritime border with Cambodia on Tuesday, February 25.
The incident occurred during an operation wherein the Sattahip-class patrol craft HTMS Thepa was attempting to intercept a small fleet of 10 foreign fishing vessels that were first detected in the area near the maritime border late last week.
Nine of the fishing vessels were able to escape past the maritime boundary even after the navy personnel fired warning shots and issued orders to stop.
The sole fishing vessel that had not been able to escape made a hard turn towards Thepa and struck it amidships. However, navy officials have assured that the damage suffered by the patrol craft was minor.
The navy personnel then towed the fishing vessel to port and detained the latter's four crewmembers.
Although the nationalities of the detained fishermen were not explicitly identified, one navy official told local reporters that encroachments by Vietnamese fishing vessels have been regularly occurring in the waters where the ramming took place.