London, October 27: The British foreign ministry said today it was urgently trying to locate a British couple whose yacht sent a distress signal while sailing near pirate-infested waters, and has not been seen since.
Paul Chandler, 58, and his wife Rachel, 55, were heading from the Seychelles towards Tanzania in their 11.6-metre yacht the Lynn Rival when their emergency beacon went off on Friday.
Ransom-hunting pirates operating out of lawless Somalia have recently been carrying out attacks well outside Somali waters in the Indian Ocean.
The ministry said it was “investigating urgently”.
“We’re in touch with the family in the UK and the Seychelles coastguard, which continues to monitor the situation and has conducted a search of the area,” a spokeswoman said.
Britain’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency said an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) was activated at 10pm GMT (9am AEDT) Friday.
“The Seychelles authorities are carrying out a search and rescue operation but have found nothing so far,” a spokesman said.
“They had left the Seychelles on October 22 and were going on a 278km passage south-west to the Amirante Islands, en route to Tanzania.
“It would appear from the activation of the EPIRB that something has happened.
“We were aware that the EPIRB had gone off, talked to the Seychelles, asked if they were aware of it; they were, and have been searching, by air and sea.”
The world’s naval powers last year started deploying warships off the Somali coast in an attempt to curb attacks that were seen as a threat to one of the globe’s most crucial maritime trade routes.
—Agencies