Navy guards on board an Italian oil tanker have shot dead two Indian fishermen after mistaking them for pirates, an Indian official said Thursday. India’s coast guard brought back the bodies of two men who are thought to have been killed on Wednesday by Italian navy officers on board the vessel Enrica Lexie 64 kilometres (40 miles) off India’s southern state of Kerala. The Italian ambassador to India was summoned to the foreign ministry where India registered an official protest over the deaths, the Press Trust of India news agency said. The captain of Enrica Lexie, who has been ordered to anchor near the local port Cochin, told officials the motorised fishing boat was believed to be a pirate ship after it sailed close to the tanker, Indian navy spokesman Roy Francis said. “The security wing fired at the fishermen and the captain has alerted the coast guard about the firing.
