British yachtsmen 'freed by Iran'

The Foreign Office says it is "actively investigating" reports that five UK yachtsmen held by the Iranian navy for a week have been freed.

The crew were said to have mistakenly strayed into Iran waters as they sailed from Bahrain to Dubai for a race.

Iranian radio said they had been freed at 0730 local time (0400 GMT). It is thought they were held on Siri island.

The news comes hours after UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband spoke by phone to his Iranian counterpart.

Luke Porter, 21, from Weston-super-Mare; Oliver Smith, 31, from Southampton; Oliver Young, 21, from Cornwall; Sam Usher, 26, from Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and Bahrain-based David Bloomer were held on 25 November.

'Actively investigating'

Iran's official IRNA news agency said the five had been freed after an interrogation by authorities established that their yacht had entered Iranian waters "by mistake".

BBC correspondent Christian Fraser in Bahrain said he had spoken to Vanessa Bloomer, Mr Bloomer's wife, who said she had received no independent verification of the
David Bloomer's wife said she had received no verification of his release

Our correspondent added there was still a lot of uncertainty about what was going on.

The family of Mr Young also told the BBC that they had not heard anything officially.

The five were detained after the Iranian navy stopped their Volvo 60 yacht, called The Kingdom of Bahrain, in the Gulf on 25 November.

Families of the five men had been due to meet with Foreign Office officials later.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran said the investigation had been "lightning-fast" by Iranian standards.

The Team Pindar-backed yacht was sailing from Bahrain to Dubai to take part in the Dubai-Muscat Offshore Race.

The 360-nautical mile Dubai-Muscat Offshore Sailing Race began on 26 November and ended two days later in the Omani capital's Bandar Al-Rawdah marina.


Race organisers said the five may have been "drifting" as a result of propeller problems.

The Kingdom of Bahrain yacht is owned by the Sail Bahrain project, which aims to promote the island as a yachting destination and was recently launched by Team Pindar.

Team Pindar is owned by G A Pindar & Son Ltd, a family owned print and publishing business based in Scarborough.

It is not the first time British sailors have been detained after being accused of straying into Iranian waters.

In March 2007 there was a prolonged stand-off between the UK and Iran after a 15-strong Royal Navy crew was detained by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

And in 2004, eight British servicemen were held in Iran after being seized in the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where they were training the Iraqi river patrol service.

News Source: news.bbc.co.uk

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