Pirates Drown With Ransom Share

Five Somali pirates drowned yesterday as they tried to make off with their share of a $3m ransom. The money, which was also lost as the pirates' boat capsized, was paid after they agreed to free a Saudi supertanker seized in the world's biggest ship hijacking.

The capture of the Sirius Star and its $100m cargo of oil in November drew attention to a surge in piracy off Somalia.

Eyewitnesses said at least five pirates were drowned in rough waters that engulfed one of the boats leaving the Saudi ship. The deaths marked the end of a two-month standoff in the Gulf of Aden which ended on Friday. The gang had originally been quoted as asking for £17m to release the Sirius Star but finally agreed to accept $3m.

Farah Osman, an associate of the pirates, said five of the first eight pirates to leave the ship died after their boat capsized. Speaking from Haradheere port near where the tanker was held, he said: "Two others swam and survived. One is still missing. The weather was so terrible that it blew the boat over, then sank it. We got five dead bodies. We are still searching for the missing one."

The Sirius was carrying 2m barrels of oil when it was captured on 15 November with 25 crew members, 450 miles southeast of Kenya, in the boldest seizure to date by Somali pirates. The tanker sailed from Haradheere, a pirate base, on Somalia's eastern coast on Thursday. Two Britons - Peter French, from County Durham, and James Grady, from Renfrewshire - are among the crew, who were all reported to be unharmed.

There are currently around a dozen boats with more than 200 hostages in pirate hands. The average ransom per vessel is reported to be around $2m.