An Indian warship has fought off an attack by a suspected pirate ship in the Gulf of Aden, the Indian navy said today.
The attack last night was on the same day pirates hijacked a Thai boat and an Iranian bulk cargo carrier off Somalia's coast.
The INS Tabar, which is dedicated to fighting pirates, approached the suspect vessel and asked it to stop to be searched.
The Indian navy said the pirate ship appeared to be a "mother vessel" loaded with food, diesel and water, and had two speedboats in tow. Naval officers could see men roaming the ship's deck with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and guns.
The pirates opened fire, threatening to blow up the warship, but the INS Tabar retaliated, sparking explosions and a fire that destroyed the pirate vessel.
This is the third attack the INS Tabar has warded off since it began its anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden at the start of the month.
Spokesmen for the International Maritime Bureau's piracy centre in Malaysia and the 5th Fleet in Bahrain said they had received no reports involving an Indian ship.
The Somalian prime minister, Nur Hassan Hussein, said naval patrols would not stop piracy and appealed for more help to tackle criminal networks with links beyond his Horn of Africa nation.
"We are very sorry this piracy problem is not limited only to Somalia but is affecting the whole region, is affecting the world," he told Reuters. "The warship operations alone will not be sufficient. Since there is a piracy network, it means an operational network which includes the sea, the land and also outside the country sometimes."
Somali pirates are being helped by Yemenis, and possibly Nigerians, analysts suspect.
Foreign leaders are gathering in Brussels today for a two-day Nato meeting, which is expected to address the piracy problem.
Pirate attacks off the Somali coast have surged 75% this year as bandits seeking million-dollar ransoms have pushed further out to sea in search of bigger prey among the 20,000 oil tankers, freighters and merchant vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden each year.
At least a dozen vessels and more than 250 international crew are being held hostage. Pirates have reaped £20m in ransom payments this year.
The latest attacks threaten one of the world's busiest shipping routes, which could push up the cost of goods and commodities around the world.
Yesterday, Somalis seized a Hong Kong-registered cargo ship carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat to Iran.
The Delight, with 25 crew on board, was captured off Yemen in the seventh successful hijacking in the past 12 days. The US navy, whose patrols along Somalia's coast appear to be having little effect on the pirates, said the ship belonged to Iran's state shipping line.
A British tanker came under attack yesterday but the pirates were thwarted when the German frigate Karlsruhe launched a helicopter to intercept them. Pirates did manage to seize a Greek bulk carrier.
The attacks came a day after it was revealed that Somali pirates had hijacked a Saudi supertanker carrying $100m (£67m) of oil. The US-bound Sirius Star was taken 450 miles south-east of the Kenyan port of Mombasa. It is the largest vessel yet captured by pirates.
The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, described the hijacking of the Sirius Star, which is carrying 2m barrels of oil, as an "outrageous act" and promised to support a European-led initiative to increase security off Africa's east coast.
"Piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together," he said.
The Somalian government - facing an Islamist insurgency and crippled by infighting - appears powerless to stop the pirate groups, which are said to be employing up to 3,000 gunmen.