An agency worker trying to free the kidnapped sailors Paul,59, and Rachel Chandler, 55, has said the pirates may now consider a £100,000 ransom rather than the £4 million they were asking initially.

Andrew Mwangura, co-ordinator of the East African Seafarer’s Assistance Programme is working with Somali elders to try and free the couple.

The Foreign Office remain adament that they will not pay ransoms.

The couple from Tunbridge Wells, Kent were captured on 23 October when armed men boarded their Rival 38 yacht on passage from the Seychelles to Tanzania.