November 21, 2008	Friday	Ziqa'ad 22, 1429

HONG KONG, Nov 20: A Hong Kong-flagged ship hijacked two months ago off the coast of Somalia is returning home after its owner paid a ransom to a group of pirates, AFP was told on Thursday.

A spokeswoman for Sinotrans Shipping said its vessel Great Creation had left the Gulf of Aden on Thursday afternoon after it was released by a group of Somali pirates on Wednesday night.

“A ransom was paid. The vessel has left the Somali area safely and is in international waters heading back (to) Hong Kong,” she said. “No one was hurt,” she added.

The crew, which had been held hostage since September, consists of a Sri Lankan captain, a technical officer from Hong Kong and 23 mainland Chinese sailors. The vessel is carrying a large quantity of chemical fertilisers, the spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship hijacked on Tuesday by pirates off the coast of Yemen is still being held, said a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong government.

“Our government is very concerned about the incident. The marine department is liaising closely with the owner of the ship and monitoring the development,” she said.

The cargo ship Delight, carrying 25 crew members and 36,000 tonnes of wheat, was heading for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, the Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua said.

Ambrose Lee, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security, said: “Every time when incidents like this happened, we would always be in close contact with the ship owner. Lots of times though, the ship owner told us they could resolve the problem themselves.”

—AFP