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	Hijacking of ships declined to 15 incidents in 2015, compared with 21 the previous year, according to the International Maritime Bureau(IMB), which has a reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur.</div>
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	The number of crew held on their ships were 271, down from 442 in 2014.</div>
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	But the overall number of attacks was at 246, one incident higher than the 245 attacks reported the year before, it said.</div>
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	In 203 of those, pirates boarded the vessels, robbing them of goods and valuables and fleeing without holding the crews hostage.</div>
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	The IMB added there were also 27 failed boarding attempts and one incident where a ship was fired upon by pirates before escaping.</div>
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	In South-East Asia, one of the global piracy hotspots, attacks on small fuel tankers fell significantly, with the last one recorded in August 2015, the agency said.</div>
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	&quot;IMB particularly commends the robust actions taken by the Indonesian and Malaysian authorities in the arrest and prosecution of two gangs that hijacked tankers,&quot; its director Pottengal Mukundan said.</div>
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	- DPA</div>

Global piracy shifts from hijacking to robbery, 2015 figures show

Kuala Lumpur - Pirates moved away from taking ships and crew members hostage in 2015, favouring instead swift attacks to rob vessels of removable goods, an anti-piracy watch group said Tuesday.