NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Kenyan authorities Saturday surrounded a boat carrying armed Somalia pirates and an elderly French woman they abducted from an island resort, officials said.
The Daily Telegraph reports Kenyan coast guard speedboats had chased the boat and an army helicopter later spotted it as the kidnappers tried to flee to Somalia from Manda Island, where the woman was kidnapped by gunmen from a bungalow just after 3 a.m.
The authorities remained in an armed standoff and didn't want to take action against the boat because they feared sinking it, and the woman, who locals say uses a wheelchair, would be unable to swim, the Telegraph said.
"There is still a standoff between the Kenyan coast guards and the gunmen," said Najib Balala, Kenya's tourism minister. "An army helicopter is also hovering over the vessel and we are continually monitoring the situation."
The kidnappers arrived in two speedboats on the Manda Island beach, and six of them forced their way into the woman's bungalow, the Telegraph said.
Zeinab Anthony, 24, a maid at the house, said pirates fired shots into the air, the living area and at guards while shouting, "Where is the foreigner? Where is the foreigner?"
The woman was dragged down the beach, then put into one of the kidnappers' boats, a night watchman said.
George Lepapa ole Moiyio, the woman's Kenyan partner, said the men tried to shoot him but he escaped through a window to a hotel next door.
Nearby, on Sept. 11, pirates fatally shot a British man, David Tebbutt, and kidnapped his wife, Judith, north of Lamu Island in Kenya, the Telegraph said.
