SPAIN worked yesterday to try to win the release of a fishing boat hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia with 26 crew members aboard.

The Foreign Ministry said there had been no reports of injuries in the seizure of the Spanish vessel Playa de Bakio on Sunday in Somali waters.

The government had formed a high-level crisis unit to try to secure the release of the boat, and a Spanish frigate that was already in the Horn of Africa region was now heading towards the site of the hijacking, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s office said.

Spanish media reports said the pirates were demanding money and had fired a grenade launcher at the fishing boat before boarding it, but the Foreign Ministry would not confirm either detail.

Spanish National Radio said it had contacted the skipper of the vessel early yesterday and were told the crew members were fine and “for now there are no problems”.

It did not give the name of the skipper, who said the fishing boat was now moving towards the Somali coast.

The Spanish Embassy in Kenya, which has responsibility for Somalia, has begun “contacts with authorities in the area,” the ministry said.

Spanish authorities have contacted the African Union, Nato, France and Britain for help in winning the release of the fishing boat because Spain has no embassy in Somalia, an official in Zapatero’s office said.

As of midday yesterday, the hijacked ship was heading north at a speed of nine knots, said an official.

The vessel is a tuna boat based in the port of Bermeo in Spain’s Basque region.

Somali waters are notoriously dangerous.

Earlier this month Somali pirates seized a French luxury yacht and held 30 crew members hostage for a week.

They were freed in apparent exchange for a ransom payment.

French troops captured six of the pirates on April 11 on land in Somalia. — Sapa-AP