LONDON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- More people were taken hostage at sea in 2010 than in any year on record, a global piracy report by the London-based International Maritime Bureau indicates.
The report said the number of pirate attacks against ships has risen every year for the last four years.
In 2010, 53 ships were hijacked while pirates captured 1,181 seafarers and killed eight.
Ships reported 445 pirate attacks in 2010, an increase of 10 percent from 2009, the IMB said.
"These figures for the number of hostages and vessels taken are the highest we have ever seen," said Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, director of the bureau's Piracy Reporting Center. "The continued increase in these numbers is alarming".
According to the bureau, hijackings off the coast of Somalia accounted for 92 percent of all ship seizures last year with 49 vessels hijacked and 1,016 crew members taken hostage. UPI
