Crew of tugboat seized by pirates 'unharmed'

The crew of a tug boat that was seized by pirates off Somalia are unharmed and have access to both food and water, the Danish owner said today.

An Irishman, four Russians and a British captain were on the Svitzer Korsakov when it was attacked on Friday by pirates off the coast of Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of northeast Somalia, according to Copenhagen-based shipping company Svitzer.

The company said in a statement today that it had ongoing contact with the ship and had been told by the British captain "that the crew is unharmed and that food and water supply is sufficient".

It said the ship was still situated in the waters off the northeast coast of Somalia.

Abdulahi Sa'id Awyusuf, chief of the coastal village of Eyl, said earlier this week that pirates holding the tug were demanding thousands of US dollars in ransom.

Svitzer declined to comment on the negotiations with the pirates.

The 115-foot-long ship was on its way to Sakhalin Island between Japan and Russia when it was attacked, Svitzer said.

Piracy is increasingly common along Somalia's 1,880-mile coast, connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean. Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off the Somali coast last year.