Gun-toting Somalis in three speedboats boarded a freighter, gunned down her crew and took charge in a high sea heist north of Mogadishu in the Indian Ocean.

These were not pirates but seamen armed with automatic weapons who were determined to take back the Motor Vessel Veesham One which had been hi-jacked by pirates and ransomed for £524,000.

In the gunfight two pirates were seriously wounded and six others captured by the 30-strong boarding crew.