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Eleven of 12 Indonesian sailors who work for a Singaporean company were released after pirates held them hostage for five days near the island nation, an official said on Sunday.

“We have received a report that 11 Indonesian ship crew members have been rescued and taken to the Indonesian Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia,” Teguh Wardoyo, director of the Foreign Ministry’s citizens’ protection unit, told the Jakarta Globe.

Teguh said all of the released crew members were safe and healthy, but the ministry and the Malaysian Navy were still trying to locate the 12th crew member, who was still being held hostage by the pirates.

Iman Rokhadi, an official at the Indonesian Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu, said a sand- dredging ship owned by a Singaporean company embarked from Cambodia for Singapore on Feb. 6. All 12 crew members aboard were Indonesian.

He said that after 12 hours at sea, the ship was attacked by a boat carrying eight pirates, and all of the crew members were taken hostage.

“Their hands were tied and their eyes were covered for five days before the pirates finally released most of them. But one crew member, a mechanic, was not released,” he said, adding that the attackers were carrying machetes and one of them was armed with a gun.

Iman said the pirates released the 11 crew members in a rubber dinghy, along with their passports and other documents.

“They had been floating for six days on the rubber dinghy when it hit a rock and deflated, forcing the crew members to swim,” he said.

Iman said the crew members were about one and a half kilometers from a Malaysian naval base at the time. Malaysian Navy personnel pulled them from the sea and reported them to the consulate in Kota Kinabalu on Saturday.

“They are now being treated and are resting at our consulate,” he said.

Iman said that according to the crew members, the pirates that attacked them spoke in Bugis and Malaysian languages, but they could not identify the attackers because their eyes were covered during the ordeal.