He opens fire with 30mm cannon

A Somali pirate boat has been sunk by a British journalist armed with an automatic weapon aboard a Royal Navy warship.

The bizarre clash came when the journalist, Tom Newton Dunn, embedded with HMS Northumberland on pirate patrol in the Indian Ocean came across a wooden skiff used by pirates to hi-jack a 75,000 ton Greek-owned ship MV Saldanha.

Once it had been searched by Royal Marines who found two rocket-propelled grenades and a stash of drugs, the craft was ordered to be sunk by the navy ship’s Commander Martin Simpson.

Sun man Newton Dunn was allowed to wield a 30mm cannon to sink the vessel.

Read Dick Durham’s blog