This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

A British frigate and a Russian warship fought off Somali pirates trying to hijack a ship in the Gulf of Aden, both countries' navies said today.

The pirates used assault rifles as they twice tried to seize a Danish vessel, the Powerful, but were repelled by HMS Cumberland and a Russian frigate, the Neustrashimy, the Russian navy said. The defending ships used helicopters in the operation.

"The pirates tried to shoot at the ship using assault rifles and carried out two hijacking attempts," the navy said in a statement.

"The activities of the pirates were thwarted through the joint efforts of the Russian warship and the British warship," it added.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman in London said: "We can confirm that a UK warship yesterday carried out a boarding of a foreign-flagged dhow, suspected of being engaged in piracy. The situation is ongoing."

Cumberland, a type 22 frigate, is on anti-piracy duty in the Gulf of Aden along with another British frigate, Northumberland.

The Royal Navy's website describing Northumberland's activities said last week the vessel had faced "a busy and challenging time" patrolling the Somali coast and that operations included "preventing a number of pirate attacks".

According to Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency, the Neustrashimy, or Fearless, was ordered to accompany the Danish vessel, which is crewed by Russian nationals, at the request of Denmark.

Russia sent the missile-armed frigate to the region in September after pirates seized a Ukrainian freighter carrying military hardware, including grenade launchers and 33 Russian-made tanks. The MV Faina had three Russian citizens among its 21 crew members.

Heavily armed Somali pirate gangs, using speedboats and armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, have captured dozens of ships this year.

They are rarely interested in a ship's cargo, preferring to extract a ransom for the vessel and its crew.

Somalia's weak government, which has no coastguard, says it is powerless to stop the pirates who stalk the busy shipping lanes along the country's 2,300-mile coastline.

In a report last month, the UK-based Chatham House thinktank said there had been at least 61 hijacks or attempted hijacks off Somalia this year. Ransoms paid out could exceed £1m per ship at a cost of around £20m in total.

Insurance premiums had risen tenfold during 2008 and the upsurge in piracy could affect global business, the report said, as shipping companies diverted vessels away from the area.

The Gulf of Aden is used by tens of thousands of ships a year, and is a major route for cargo en route to the Suez canal.