Two british sailors, Rachel (55) and Paul (59) Chandler, abducted from their yacht by Somali pirates a week ago, are reported to be well and ashore in Somalia. (BBC report).

In a telephone call to the BBC's Somali service Paul said that they were being fed, and "food is okay at the moment".According to the BBC report, Mr Chandler said: "I was off watch. I was asleep and men with guns came aboard. It was on Friday last week at 0230. "He said the couple were being held hostage on a Singapore-registered container ship called the Kota Wajah. He was speaking from the captain's cabin at 1100 GMT (1400 local time). He said their captors had not officially asked for a ransom and that they were currently being held hostage on board a container ship.

The BBC is carrying reports that a British couple sailing their British Registered Yacht 'Lynn Rival' (pictured left) from the Seychelles to Tanzania have been seized by Somali Pirates. BBC report here. 

The BBC report that Paul and Rachel Chandler, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, had left the Seychelles and were sailing in the Indian Ocean when, according to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) they activated their EPIRB, an automatic distress beacon, at 2300 BST on Friday.  They were heading for Tanzania from the Seychelles, and messages reporting the distress first appeared on yachting forums.   It would appear that Somali pirates later contacted the news agency Reuters to say that they had seized a yacht in the Indian Ocean with a British couple aboard and were taking the vessel to the Horn of Africa.  A pirate called Hassan said: "The British couple are in our hands now. We captured them as they were touring in the Indian Ocean."  The two captives were healthy and ransom demands would follow, he added