Danish naval forces today came to the rescue of a Barbados-flagged merchant ship off Somalia after it said suspected pirate skiffs were closing in.
The Danes launched a helicopter, which located one skiff and fired warning shots, Commander Mikael Bill at Danish fleet headquarters said.
The Danish team boarded the Ariella after seeing nobody on the bridge. They discovered the 25-member crew in hiding, but an initial search of the vessel turned up no pirates, Bill said.
"The team took control of the ship and are still searching it," he said.
Nobody was injured, he said. He had no information about what had happened to the suspected pirate skiff.
The Danes are part of a Nato force patrolling the waters off the Horn of Africa where pirates have seized large numbers of merchant vessels in recent years.
Reuters