Somali pirates free British couple
Released British hostages Rachel Chandler (L) and Paul Chandler (R) meet Somalia's Prime Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed at the Presidential palace in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, November 14, 2010. Somali pirates released British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler on Sunday after holding them hostage for more than a year, Somali officials said. REUTERS/Ismail Taxta

A British couple taken hostage by the Somali pirates last year was released on Sunday. Reports suggest that the couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, paid a ransom amount of $300,000 to their captors. The pirates reportedly handed them over to officials in Adado, a central Somali town near the Ethiopian border.

I'm fine, thank you, enjoying being free, but we are still in Somalia, Rachel Chandler told Reuters news agency on Sunday.

The couple was kidnapped off their luxury private yacht while sailing from the Seychelles en-route to Tanzania. Though they tried to steer away from the pirate infested waters, armed men intercepted the yacht and held them at gun point. According to authorities the couple was shifted to a pirate base in Haradheere of central Somalia.

Earlier in May this year, she told the ITN Channel that they have been treated like caged animals.

Paul, retired civil engineer married and Rachel, an economist, three decades ago. The couple sold their properties in the UK in order to procure a yacht and set off to travel across the world.

Somali pirates Somalia Somalia