Another hijacked vessel released by Somali pirates

The news comes as EU Navfor confirmed on Saturday that Royal Grace and her 20 crew had been freed and were under escort to Muscat.

Hijacked with a load of almost 1m barrels of crude onboard on 10 May 2012, 2011-built Greek-owned suezmax tanker Smyrni's crew of 26 includes 11 Indian seafarers.

On Saturday 9 March, Indian shipping minister GK Vasan was quoted by One India news as saying "I am very happy to announce the release of the Indian seafarers. Due to coordinated actions of the Ministry of Shipping, External Affairs, Defence, Home Affairs, Director-General Shipping and other important agencies, yesterday we could get release of two vessels MV Royal Grace hijacked in March 2012 and MT Smrini hijacked in May 2012."

No details of the negotiations surrounding either vessel's release nor any ransom payments are yet known.