presstv

Danish special forces have stormed a Slovenian cargo ship captured by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, freeing the ship and its crew of 25.

The 'Ariella' sent out a distress call on Friday reporting that some six or seven pirates armed with guns had boarded the ship and requesting urgent assistance.

The Barbados-flagged merchant vessel was plowing at top speed through one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world with a cargo of 30,000 tons of steel.

Upon receiving the distress call, the Danish warship 'Absalon' dispatched a helicopter with specially trained forces to investigate, said Cmdr. Dan B. Termansen.

He said his forces fired warning shots from the helicopter towards the pirates who were on the deck of the Ariella. After landing on the deck, there was no sign of the pirates or their boat, the commander said.

The crew had locked themselves away in a safe room. A search of the vessel turned up no pirates, and the ship was handed back to its crew.

The Danes are part of a NATO force patrolling the waters off the Horn of Africa where pirates have seized large numbers of merchant vessels in recent years.

The owner of the ship, Splosna Plovba, said in a statement that the Ariella was hijacked "for a few hours" on its way from the Black Sea to Indonesia, the Slovenian state-run news agency STA reported.

Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a North Korean-flagged ship, the MV Rim, in the Gulf of Aden, European Union's anti-piracy naval force said on Thursday.