India and China has successfully thwarted an attempt by pirates to hijack a bulk carrier in the Gulf of Aden, ANI reported on Sunday. The navies of both the countries worked together as they responded to the alert sent out by the United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Organisation monitoring the ship. The pirates, however, escaped before the security forces reached the vessel, reported NDTV.

The navies of China, Italy and Pakistan were also operating in the area when the alert was sent out, but the Indians were the first to respond. They deployed a helicopter and established communication with the crew holed up in the “citadel” or the safe area of the ship. The Indian Navy ships – INS Tarkash and INS Mumbai – were joined by Chinese forces, who moved in next to sanitise the vessel. “We provided the communication and air support to the People’s Liberation Army Navy which entered the ship to clear it. The ship has been rendered safe,” unidentified Indian Navy officials told ANI.

Vessels sailing in the area are at a constant risk of being robbed and hijacked by Somali pirates. Earlier in April, Somali pirates hijacked an Indian commercial ship carrying 11 crew members. In March, they tried to hijack an oil tanker, the first such attempt since 2012, but were forced to back off after being challenged by security personnel guarding the coast. As many as 191 incidents of piracy and armed robbery were reported the world in 2016 alone, according to the International Maritime Bureau’s annual report. It was the lowest since 1998.