Local
End of hijack on yacht heading to Malta
By MaltaMedia News
Apr 12, 2008 - 4:50:30 PM

Pirates who last week seized a French luxury yacht with 30 crew members on board were apprehended in Somalia by French commandos, Reuters reported. The yacht had been hijacked while on its way from the Seychelles to the Mediterranean. It had next been scheduled to carry passengers from Alexandria, Egypt, to Valletta, Malta, starting April 19.

The six pirates were caught on Friday during a daring helicopter raid launched shortly after the bandits had released the 30-strong crew of the luxury yacht.

Reuters reported French officials saying the owners of the yacht paid a ransom to obtain the freedom of the crew and as soon as it was clear that they were all safe, the commandos went into action aboard helicopters to track down the pirates. French media reported that the ransom was of $2 million.

A district commissioner in Somalia told Reuters that five local people had died in the attack, but the French military denied killing anyone in their daylight raid. The military tracked the pirates, believed to be Somali fishermen, after they made landfall.

Pirates grabbed the three-masted yacht, the Ponant on April 4 about 850 km out to sea in the Gulf of Aden. They then sailed the boat to the Somali coast, eventually mooring at Garaad, near the town of Eyl.



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