8:57pm UK, Friday November 20, 2009

Alex Watts, Sky News Online

The British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates fear they could be killed within a week.

British couple were heading from the Seychelles towards Tanzania

Paul and Rachel Chandler said they were “unharmed and in reasonable physical health” but their “kidnappers were losing patience”.

The interview, broadcast on Channel 4 News, showed the couple speaking at gunpoint.

It was the first time they had been seen on camera since being captured.

Mr Chandler, 59, urged the Government to start negotiations over a ransom.

“I have no doubt that they will not hesitate to kill us, perhaps within a week or so of now if there is no response,” he stressed.

His wife, 55, added: “We are very concerned about the future. Our captors are very impatient.

“We are also feeling very much under threat now that these people themselves won’t hesitate to take our lives.”

Channel 4 said their family had agreed the film should be broadcast.

They said their captors had warned them that a terrorist cell was looking for them and that they could “sleepwalk to a tragic end”.

Armed Somali pirates boarded their yacht, the Lynn Rival

A spokesman for the Foreign Office told Sky News they were aware of the video, and again appealed for the couple’s release.

He added: “Any such video will be distressing for the family.

“The UK Government’s policy is clear: we do not make substantive concessions to hostage takers, including the payment of ransoms.

“These are innocent tourists. We seek the immediate release of Paul and Rachel.”

The Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were seized in the early hours of October 23 when armed Somali pirates boarded their yacht, the Lynn Rival.

They were heading from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.

The couple were forced to change course to Somalia before being put on a container ship, the Kota Wajar, which had also been taken by the pirates.

They are since thought to have been brought ashore.

The couple have urged the Government to pay their ransom

In the interview, Mr Chandler said: “This is our 27th day in captivity.

“So far we have been provided with adequate food and water and facilities and so we are unharmed and in reasonable physical health.

“Mentally we are under great stress and threatened.

“Our kidnappers are losing patience, they are concerned that there has been no response at all to their demands for money.

“We ask the Government and the people of Britain and our families to do whatever you can to at least open negotiations with these people about money so that perhaps our lives can be bought back.”