Captured: The moment the Lynn Rival was boarded by pirates off east Africa
Video: Rachel and her husband Paul, who were kidnapped by Somali pirates last month, begged for their lives as they warned they could be killed within days
Plea: Mr Chandler appeared healthier than his wife but was clearly showing signs of exhaustion from the ordeal
Terror: Rachel Chandler trembles as pirates menace her with a machine gun and grenade launcher
With an assault rifle pointed at her head, this was the dramatic moment the British woman kidnapped by Somali pirates pleaded for her life last night.
Surrounded by their captors, Rachel Chandler warned that she and her husband Paul could be killed within days.
She said the kidnappers were ‘losing patience’ and urged the British Government to open talks on a ransom.
Mrs Chandler said: ‘We are feeling very much under threat now. These people won’t hesitate to take our lives.’
Wearing a white robe and appearing frail, she went on: ‘Our captors are getting very impatient that no one has been in touch or entered into negotiations.
‘So we ask the Government and people of Britain and their families to do whatever they can to enter into negotiations to buy back our lives. We are under threat and we are told that we will not be fed and given water. So we are very concerned about the future.’
The 55-year-old added: 'We are also told that there is a terrorist cell, or a fanatic cell, searching for us.’
The couple were seized 29 days ago as they sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania on their 38ft yacht.
Their appeal for help came in a video shot by the kidnappers in the African bush on Wednesday and released to Channel 4 News last night.
Mr Chandler, 59, who was showing signs of exhaustion, said: ‘So far we have been provided with adequate food, water and facilities, and are unharmed and in reasonable physical health. But mentally we are under great stress and threatened.
‘Our kidnappers are losing patience. We have been threatened that there is a terrorist group at large in this country looking for us.
‘We are concerned these people will lose patience and I have no doubt they will not hesitate to kill us in a week or so.
‘So please, somebody get in touch otherwise we are just sleepwalk to a tragic end.’
Channel 4 said it had broadcast the video with the consent of the Chandlers’ family.
Last night a Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are aware of the video. Any such video will be distressing for the family.’
He said that the couple were innocent tourists and the Government sought their immediate release, but that ‘substantive concessions’ would not be made to hostage takers.
The video was released as questions mounted over why a Royal Navy vessel armed with cannon and machine guns just 50ft away as the couple were kidnapped did not immediately intervene to save them and why the Ministry of Defence seemingly covered up the episode.
The kidnappers had previously demanded a £4million ransom for the couple and said they would ‘burn their bones’ if there was any attempt to free them.
The Chandlers, who have no children, were heading for Tanzania, via the Amirante Islands on their yacht the Lynn Rival.
The couple, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were taken hostage by gunmen in the Indian Ocean early on October 23. Pirates boarded their yacht as they slept and diverted them to Somalia.
Six days later in a phone call to ITV, Mr Chandler said: ‘I was asleep and men with guns came on board.’
He told how they had been moved to a container ship, the Kota Wajar, which had also been seized by the pirates, and then moved to another ship anchored off the east coast of Somalia.
The following day the ransom demand was made in a phone call to the BBC. In the call one of the pirates said: ‘If they do not harm us, we will not harm them - we only need a little amount of seven million dollars.’
The same day Mrs Chandler’s brother Stephen Collett made a direct plea to the pirates, saying: ‘If you release them it would show your compassionate nature and it would be positive to everyone. Thank you.’
-------
-------
-------
RELATED POSTS:-
- Brazil says negotiating for French fighter jets
- Dozens missing from sunken ferry - Latests now only 3 dead and 80 missings.
- Russian subs patrol off U.S. East Coast: officials
- British yacht couple captured by Somali gunmen make desperate plea.Rachel Chandler Paul Chandler captured by somali pirates to be killed within days
- Bloomberg wins 3rd term as NYC mayor-Win by thin margin-Overspent $80million more than rival in campaign
- Fanfare greets USS New York's arrival at Pier 88
- Ship built with World Trade Center steel arrives in namesake city
- Calif. searchers seek survivors after air crash-Midair crash betw CoastGuard aircraft and Marine Helicopter
- Somali pirates say British couple taken to land-Somali pirates: Western boats 'loot' Somali fish
- Search underway for survivors of military aircraft collision off Southern California coast- Coast Guard: Navy chopper crashes off Calif. coast
0 comments:
Post a Comment