Bulgaria's commercial fleet on the Danube River has been raided 38 times by Serbian pirates in the last two years, the Bulgarian River Shipping company announced Thursday.

The pirate raids in the Serbian part of the Danube were usually against unmanned barges but a Bulgaria sailor was wounded by the attackers in one incident on October 10, 2008.

The sailor from the Danube city of Ruse Ivan Mitov tried to stop the raiders who were stealing cargo from a Bulgarian barge anchored at the Serbian port of Smederjevo, and was thrown overboard by them.

Despite his injuries, Mitov did not want to seek medical help and to make the incident public while in Serbia. His vessel returned to Bulgaria's port of Ruse several days ago.

The Deputy Director of the Bulgarian River Shipping Ivan Ivanov stated the company had formally notified the Serbian authorities dozens of times about the piracy in their part of the Danube River but to no avail. Now the company is asking the Bulgarian authorities to take up and resolve the issue.