French forces grab 3 Somali pirates in Seychelles

By George Thande

VICTORIA (Reuters) - A French naval patrol seized three Somali pirates in Seychelles' waters on Saturday and handed them over to the coastguard, the islands' president's office said.

Sea gangs armed with rocket launchers and sophisticated navigation equipment have captured a string of vessels off the Horn of Africa.

"French forces have captured three pirates within Seychelles Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) today," said presidential spokesperson Srdjana Janosevic.

"They were formally arrested by officers on board the Seychelles coastguard vessel Andromache."

The pirates, who were tracked down on the boundary of Somali and Seychelles waters, will arrive in the archipelago's capital, Victoria, on Sunday morning.

Saturday's operation followed the arrest of nine pirates believed to have attacked the Italian cruise-liner MSC Melody which was carrying 1,500 passengers and crew.

Those pirates were arrested within the Seychelles EEZ early this week.

The Seychelles archipelago, with a population of just 87,000, covers more than 1.3 million square km (500,000 square miles) of the western Indian Ocean although total land area is only 445 square km.

(Writing by Richard Lough; editing by Wangui Kanina and Robert Woodward)