Pirates abandon Turkish ship off Kenya's coast

Pirates have abandoned a Turkish flagged bulk carrier they hijacked while it was en route to Mombasa and left 25 crew unharmed, the head of a regional maritime body said on Saturday.

Yasin C was seized on Wednesday some 250 nautical miles east of Mombasa.

"Yasin C was abandoned yesterday. The pirates abandoned it, and I think the crew will seek aid from the navy before coming to Mombasa," Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme told Reuters.

"All the 25 crew was unharmed," he added. Over the last few years sea gangs have seized dozens of ships, including large oil tankers, in the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.

They are expected to try to capture more vessels due to good weather in the coming months despite patrols by foreign warships.

Mr Mwangura did not say why the Turkish carrier was abandoned. Pirates do sometimes abandon ships if they develop mechanical problems or run out of fuel.

Last Sunday, Somali pirates seized a South Korean oil tanker, the 300,000-tonne Samho Dream as it sailed to the United States from Iraq. The ship is now in Somali waters.

Increasingly brazen pirate activity has pushed up insurance costs, forced some ships to go around South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, and secured millions of dollars in ransoms.