The Royal Marine Commandos have freed 20 crew who were held
hostage on a pirate ship in the Indian Ocean.

The dramatic rescue came about after British and U.S forces
received a message in a bottle tossed by hostages from a porthole.

The pirates had hijacked a cargo vessel and used it as a
base to attack merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean, the Daily Mail reports.

HMS Somerset and RFA Fort Victoria, operating as part of
Nato’s counter-piracy task force Ocean Shield, captured four suspected pirates
in the attack.

The Ministry of Defence said that when commandos gained
access to the ship, they discovered a large cache of weapons as well as equipment
from a previously pirated vessel.

Image taken from our gallery ‘Pirates – but not as you know them‘.