Bulgarian sailor from the Malaspina Castle, abducted by Somali pirates on April 6 has contacted his family by telephone.
 
He has revealed that all Bulgarian sailors are alive and well, as told by the deputy Foreign Minister Milen Keremedjiev, reported by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).
 
"The crew member in question is the ships’ first mate. He has spoken to his family and informed that everyone on board is all right and that eventually everyone else will also be given an opportunity to contact home" he siad.
 
The ship is currently docked in southern Somalia. The pirates had contacted the charter company, an Italian firm, B Navy.  "There are as of now no ransom demands made whatsoever" Keremedjiev said, based on information he had received from the Bulgarian embassy in Rome.
 
The 32 000-ton Malaspina Castle, a British-owned cargo ship sailing under Panama's flag, was attacked on April 6 in the Gulf of Aden.

Sixteen of the sailors on board the ship are Bulgarian.
 
Late on April 6, Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov, while in Istanbul, sought help from United States president Barack Obama and Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Purvanov said that the European Union and Nato must make a greater effort to combat piracy around the coast of Somalia and find and free the captured vessel and its crew.

Bulgarian diplomatic missions in the region have also been mobilised to work on the matter. Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry is co-operating with its counterparts in Romania and Ukraine, two nations who also have mariners among those kidnapped on board the ship.