Britons escape from hijacked ship

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A warship on patrol nearby had sent helicopters to intervene in the attack, but they arrived after pirates had taken control of the Liberian-flagged ship, diplomatic officials said.

Still on board were 25 Indian and two Bangladeshi crew members, after the British security guards escaped by jumping into the water, the diplomats said.

It was the 97th vessel to be attacked this year off Somalia, where an Islamic insurgency and lack of effective government have helped facilitate an increase in pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden.

The ship was being operated out of Singapore, according to Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centre in Malaysia.

The ship master had sent a distress call to the centre, which relayed the alert to international forces that have been policing Somali waters this year, Choong said. There were no immediate details about how the pirates attacked or the condition of the crew.

Pirates have become increasingly brazen in the Gulf, a major international shipping lane through which some 20 tankers sail daily.

So far this year, 97 ships have been attacked and 40 hijacked, including the seizure of a Saudi supertanker loaded with 100 million dollars worth of crude oil earlier this month.

Pirates demanding multimillion-dollar ransoms are currently holding 15 ships, with nearly 300 crew, Choong said.

Warships from Denmark, India, Malaysia, Russia, the US and Nato have started patrolling the vast maritime corridor, escorting some merchant ships and responding to distress calls.