French navy pursues hijacked yacht

(CNN) -- A French navy vessel is in pursuit of a luxury yacht which pirates seized off the coast of Somalia a day earlier, the French Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

There were no passengers on board the 87-meter (288-foot), three-masted yacht when it was hijacked Friday, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

There were 30 crew members on board -- about 20 of them French and the rest Ukrainian, the spokesman said.

France flew a helicopter over the yacht on Friday but has had no contact with anyone on board, the spokesman said.

The white yacht, named The Ponant, has 32 cabins and four decks. It has lounges, a bar, and a restaurant. The yacht sails on luxury cruises around the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and Arabian Sea, according to its Web site.

The vessel is owned by the Marseille, France-based Compagnie des Iles du Ponant.

Pirate attacks in the waters off Somalia are common.

The International Maritime Bureau said pirates have seized four vessels, including three tankers, in the same area since February.

The IMB calls some parts of the Somalian coast "high-risk areas" for attacks and hijackings, and it warns vessels not making scheduled stops in Somalia to keep as far as possible from the coast.

The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region. Last year, the guided missile destroyer USS Porter opened fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese tanker.

Wracked by more than a decade of violence and anarchy, Somalia does not have its own navy, and a transitional government formed in 2004 with U.N. help has struggled to assert control.

The International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, said in its annual report earlier this year that global pirate attacks rose 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years. E-mail to a friend

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