Gibraltarian fishing boat 'shot at' by Spanish customs officers, says Rock's chief minister
Thursday, August 27, 2015 @ 6:59 PM
TENSIONS are hotting up again between Gibraltar and Spain after a customs officer from the latter allegedly fired gunshots at a fishing boat off the rock and three bricks at it.
The two Gibraltarians on board, who are not professional fishermen but were out for a ride on their own craft, said they had been 'very scared' and even described how Spanish crew on the customs' boat tried to board their craft.
According to Gibraltar's chief minister Fabián Picardo, the latest in a string of 'Spanish violations of the British-Gibraltar sovereignty' involved a crew on the Águila IV ordering the fishing boat to pull up, before circling it repeatedly.
The Gibraltarian men 'took evasive action' to stop the customs officers getting onto their craft, Picardo says.
He then claims the Spaniards opened fire, aiming at the water near the British boat, and threw 'objects which may have been bricks' at its two occupants.
Gibraltar's authorities appeared on the scene and forced the Spanish craft to move out of the Rock's waters – defined by international law as being three miles off its coast.
Rock police said the two men in the craft had been doing nothing against the law, but that the Spaniards' actions had 'put innocent locals' lives at risk'.
Picardo says: “That's a criminal offence in Gibraltar.”
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