DANISH and Chinese warships have prevented pirates attacking two different vessels off Somalia's coast.
In one of the incidents, the Danish ship HDMS Absalon received a distress signal on Wednesday from a Chinese vessel, the Yandanghai, said Commander Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Bahrain-based US 5th fleet.
The Chinese crew of the merchant s
hip were fending off the pirates using their fire hoses, Commander Campbell said.
When Danish sailors arrived at the scene, they found a skiff with seven suspected pirates, armed with a rocket-propelled grenade, four AK-47 assault rifles, two grenades and a knife.
Suspected pirates were disarmed, but not detained, Commander Campbell said.
The Absalon is part of a task force set up last month to combat piracy along the lawless coast of Somalia, where incidents dramatically increased last year.
In a separate incident, the Chinese navy rescued an Italian ship from a pirate attack off Somalia, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
The agency gave few details but said the rescued ship was a Liberian-flagged Italian merchant vessel, whose crew had been attacked.
If verified, it would be the first direct engagement between the Chinese navy and Somali pirates since Beijing dispatched a three-ship squadron for anti-piracy operations last December.
Somali waters are now patrolled by more than a dozen warships from countries including Britain, France, Germany, Iran and the United States. South Korea has also ordered warships to the region to protect its vessels and crews.
