British couple at pirate base

A British couple whose Indian Ocean yachting holiday was cut short when their yacht was hijacked joined hostages on another captured ship Thursday and were taken to the Somali pirate lair of Harardhere, AFP reported.

Pirates continued their rampage around the Seychelles and also seized a Thailand-flagged trawler Thursday, bringing to nine the total number of ships hijacked off Somalia.

The European Union's anti-piracy naval force, NAVFOR, said the fishing vessel Thai Union 3 came under attack from two skiffs about 200 nautical miles north of the Seychelles archipelago.Harardhere: the capital of Somali piracy

An EU navy patrol aircraft "made visual contact with the fishing vessel and confirmed that pirates were on board. Skiffs used by pirates have been sighted onboard the fishing vessel," a statement said.

According to regional maritime sources, the tuna trawler is believed to be Russian-owned and carrying a crew of 25.

Paul Chandler, 58, and his wife Rachel, 55, have not been heard from since last Friday when they released a distress signal from their yacht, Lynn Rival, on its way from the Seychelles to Tanzania.

"The hostages were picked up from their yacht and are now on board one of the other ships we were holding off Harardhere," Abdi Yare, a local pirate leader, told AFP by phone.

Harardhere is one off Somalia's main piracy hubs and lies some 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu.

"We sent two of the ships we had been holding to meet the British hostages on their yacht and bring them back. They have returned now and are a few miles off Harardhere," he added.

The ministry of defence confirmed that the abandoned yacht of the Chandlers had been sighted.

"The MoD can confirm that during counter-piracy operations overnight a Royal Navy ship encountered the yacht owned by Paul and Rachel Chandler. It was found in international waters," the ministry said in a statement.

"Paul and Rachel Chandler were not on board the yacht and we do not have any reason to believe they have been harmed."

Yare and other members of the Harardhere pirate groups said no decision had yet been made on whether to continue holding the couple off-shore or to transfer them to land.

"It is too early to say right now, but everything will depend on the way the situation develops. If the foreign naval forces try to rescue them, we will have to bring them on land," he explained.

Britain's foreign ministry has yet to officially confirm that the couple the pirates claim to hold are indeed the Chandlers.

Relatives of the couple said they were still holding out hope but admitted the chances were slim of them being free.

"It is not 100 percent confirmed -- but I think we all know that's what has happened," Paul Chandler's sister Jill Marshment told BBC radio.

The pirates expressed supervise that the couple chose to set sail in the middle of the piracy peak season and head straight into his colleagues' hunting grounds.

Somali Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke said in London Wednesday that his government would do everything in its power to free the couple, even as their captors were reportedly preparing to voice their demands.

While most of the more than 100 ships hijacked since the beginning of 2008 have been merchant or fishing vessels, pirates have also seized more vulnerable targets such as private yachts on several occasions.

Some of the most high-profile cases include the hijacking of the Tanit earlier this year, which ended with French commandos shooting dead two pirates and a hostage in a bid to rescue him, his wife and young child.

Somali pirates, who have launched almost daily attacks near the Seychelles since monsoon winds dropped a month ago, currently hold a total of nine ships and around 200 crew.