The French navy has dealt pirates in Somalia a heavy blow, rounding up 35 in two days.

A French frigate captured four mother ships and six skiffs. The French were aided by Spanish colleagues who used an airplane and two helicopters to track down the pirates.

It is not clear where the men will be taken. Kenya and the Seychelles have previously tried pirates on behalf of western countries patrolling the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

Pirates in an around the Somalian seas make tens of millions of euros each year with ransoms.

Today pirates freed a Thai fishing trawler after receiving a ransom of three million dollars. On Friday a Norwegian chemical tanker was seized off Madagascar and turned around to head toward Somalia.