Kidnapped couple arrive back in UK

 
 

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via The Guardian World News by on 11/16/10

Paul and Rachel Chandler were released on Sunday after being held captive by Somali pirates for 388 days

Paul and Rachel Chandler arrived back in the UK tonight after being held captive by Somali pirates for more than a year.

Their return brings to an end a 388-day ordeal that began in October 2009, when their yacht was seized by armed pirates as it sailed from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.

The couple, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, landed at Heathrow Airport aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight from Nairobi.

They left the plane separately from other passengers and, looking tired and pale, walked quickly to a waiting car and were driven off.

They were released on Sunday and handed over to local officials in the Somali town of Adado after a ransom of up to £1m (£620,000) was reportedly paid to their kidnappers.

The Chandlers were then flown to the capital Mogadishu and on to Nairobi, Kenya.

They learned after their release that Paul Chandler's father, Alfred, had died while they were being held.


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