Authorities stopped a group of hijackers from stealing a truck carrying more than 300 frozen swine in a blue ear pig disease epidemic zone Saturday.

The driver had been instructed to transport the frozen animals to a culling center as it is illegal to transport pigs or pork out of the zone.

It was en route to the culling center that three people on motorbikes pulled in front of the truck, forcing the vehicle to pull over.

While the would-be bandits checked the vehicle’s inventory, nearby officials witnessing the ordeal called the police, who soon arrived at the scene and arrested the hijackers.

An increasing amount of smuggling across quarantine boundaries has been recorded over the last 10 days, said local authorities.

The province has ordered all district authorities in the quarantine zone to sterilize breeding areas for free, but many villages have reported being charged fees of VND3,000 (US$0.17) per pig.

The disease has infected at least 1,300 pigs in Quang Nam Province so far.

Two other provinces, Quang Ninh in the north and Bac Lieu in the Mekong Delta, have been hit by the syndrome this year.

Blue ear disease, also known as Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), is a viral and economically important pandemic disease which causes reproductive failure in breeding stock and respiratory tract illness in young pigs.

Reported by Ho Trong