The two Republic of Korea (ROK) fishing vessels, hijacked on Tuesday with 10 Chinese aboard, have sailed into a Somali port, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Though the abducted sailors are "safe", their position is not yet known despite the crews having talked to their boss through satellite phone.

The vessels were on their way from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to Yemen when suspected pirates attacked them off the Somali coast around noon on May 15 and took their crews hostage.

But they have not yet demanded a ransom.

The two Tanzania-flagged vessels have 24 crews, 10 of who are Chinese and four ROK nationals, with the others being Indians, Indonesians and Vietnamese.

Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Mombasa-based Seafarers Assistance Program, said yesterday that the two fishing trawlers, Mavuno I and Mavuno II, were seized about 210 nautical miles (about 389 km) from the Somali capital of Mogadishu, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The Chinese government and the Chinese Embassy in Kenya are doing whatever they can to learn more about the incident and get the hostages released.

Beijing has "taken diplomatic action to learn more details (about the incident) and coordinate with the other governments to rescue the hostages," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular news briefing yesterday afternoon.

According to Yonhap, ROK Foreign Minister Song Min-soon is due to meet with his Tanzanian counterpart today to try to bring the hostage drama to an end.

Besides, the ROK government has decided to dispatch a navy officer to Bahrain to gather as much information as possible on the pirates.

The volatile political situation in Somalia, which has the longest coastline in Africa, has made its waters a haven for pirates.

The Global Maritime Bureau has declared it as one of the most dangerous areas on the high seas.

Last April, gunmen hijacked an ROK ship in the same area. The 25 people, including three Chinese nationals, aboard were set free in July after a huge ransom was paid.

The latest incident raises the number of hijacks off Somalia's coast to "at least five" this year.

Source: China Daily