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Kidnapped Brit Tells Of Pirate Yacht Raid

8:05pm UK, Thursday October 29, 2009

Huw Borland, Sky News Online
A kidnapped British man has told how armed Somali pirates boarded the yacht he and his wife were sailing in the Indian Ocean.

Speaking by phone to ITV news, Paul Chandler, 59, said: "I was asleep and men with guns came aboard."

The retired quantity surveyor and his economist wife Rachel, 55, had disappeared while taking their vessel, the Lynn Rival, from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.

Mr Chandler, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, continued: "I was off watch. I was asleep and men with guns came aboard. It was on Friday last week at 2.30pm."

We are at the moment in the captain's cabin of the container ship Kota… We are hostage together with this ship.

Paul Chandler

Before the phone call, the kidnapping and the couple's safety had not been verified.

Mr Chandler's brother-in-law, Stephen Collett, confirmed that it was his voice which was heard during the call.

Paul and Rachel Chandler

The couple are still missing

The kidnapped man said the couple were forced to sail towards Somalia after the Lynn Rival was captured.

Mr Chandler and his wife were now being held "hostage" on a container ship called the Kota Wajar, he said.

His captors have not asked for a ransom, he said: "Not officially - they kept asking for money and took everything of value on the boat."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on the pirates to release the British couple immediately.

Earlier, a pirate called Hassan, in the Somali coastal town of Haradheere, claimed his crew had seized the Chandlers and moved them onto the Kota Wajar.