As part of its involvement in Nato operation Ocean Shield, Danish ship the Absalon came to the rescue of hijacked freighter

Special forces from the Danish combat support ship Absalon have stormed a ship hijacked by pirates of the coast of Africa, freeing 25 hostages.

The hijacked Ariella ship was sailing under the flag of Antigua and Barbuda and Commander Mikael Bill of the Admiral Danish Fleet said that all 25 crew on board were uninjured when Danish forces reached them this morning.

Cmdr. Bill told The Copenhagen Pos that the incident took place at 8am Danish time and the decision was taken to board the ship after the navy determined that there were no pirates on board.

‘The helicopter hovered around for quite some time trying to attract attention from any possible pirates but there was no sign of them,’ he said.

The crew of the hijacked ship had sent out a distress signal that was picked up by the Nato fleet operating in the Gulf of Aden, but Cmdr. Bill said that the exact specifics of the call were current unknown.

Following the aerial reconnaissance of the hijacked ship, special forces approached it by inflatable boats and climbed aboard where they found the 25 crewmembers locked in a secure room.

The ship has been searched and the Danish forces are currently in the process of handing back control of the ship to its crew.

According to Cmdr. Bill, the crew of the Absalon had also spotted a suspected pirate skiff in the area and fired a warning shot over her bow, but their attention was turned to the hijacked vessel.

Details have yet to emerge about the threat pirates posed to the ship and so far none have been caught in connection with the attack.

The Absalon recently returned to the Gulf of Aden to help protect commercial shipping vessels in the area that are vulnerable to pirate attacks.

Just last week, it shadowed a hijacked Indian ship to prevent pirates from launching attacks on other vessel in the area. In the end the pirates gave up, returned to port and released the vessel.