LONDON - A British couple sailing from the island nation of Seychelles vanished after their distress signal was picked up Friday, and British officials have warned the couple’s family that they may have been kidnapped by Somali pirates.
A man who has acted as a spokesman for the Somali pirates in the past told a Somali-based reporter working for The New York Times that the couple had been seized by pirates on the Indian Ocean.
Speaking by telephone from the pirates’ stronghold in the Somali coastal town of Xarardheere, the man, who identifies himself as Farah Abdi, said, “We have them safely in our hands.’’
He said the captives and sailboat would be heading to the town “any day soon,’’ and that the pirates’ practice was to hold off on ransom demands “before the ship arrives at our shores.’’
A few hours after that call, Abdi gave a dramatically different account in a second call, suggesting that the pirates who hijacked the British sailboat had come under attack from “naval forces’’ whom he was unable to identify.
The missing couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, ages 58 and 55, were aboard their 38-foot sloop, the Lynn Rival.
