Danish special forces have stormed a ship captured by Somali pirates and freed 25 crew members with no casualties, a European Union naval spokesman and the Danish navy said Friday. The Antigua and Barbuda-flagged Ariella sent a distress call in the early hours of the morning when it was boarded by pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
Danish warship Absalon, operating under Nato command, responded to the call and sent a team to the ship, John Harbour, spokesman for the European Union's anti-piracy mission off Somalia EUNAVFOR, said. "The crew had locked themselves in a secure room ... once the special forces knew they were secure, they stormed the ship and the pirates fled," he told the German Press Agency dpa.