and made verbal threats to the crew. they retreated to a safe place on board the ship. there are few official details from the ministry of defence, but it s understood several military helicopters landed heavily armed troops by rope onto the deck of the ship. faced with overwhelming force, the stowaways are said to have surrendered almost immediately. this was a very efficient operation. it only took nine minutes from the word go to the stowaways being rounded up and identified. and, of course, this reflects the training that both the fleet air arm crews and the sbs the special boat service undertake all the time. none of the 22 crew of the andromeda were injured in the incident. the seven stowaways have been detained. andy moore, bbc news. following record numbers of new cases of covid 19 across many european countries, new anti coronavirus measures
to ta ke minutes it took four special forces to take control of the vessel? good morning, yes, essentially, as you saw, this was a helicopter assault with the two navy wildcat helicopters which would have come in first to look through their electrooptics devices what was going on. they would have provided a distraction while the two navy merlin helicopters came in closer and essentially the sbs troops roped down from those helicopters onto the deck. they would have quickly ascertained where the stowaways were, isolated them and arrested them. simple as that, job done? that s how you want it to be, to tell you the truth. and everybody is safe which is the main thing. absolutely. in that sense, it is a perfect operation, nobody got hurt, the ship was retaken and it was not able to be a problem for the government or the local area any more. how often would special forces
yesterday off the coast of the isle of wight. the ten of our stand off ended when members of the special boat service went on board and detained several people. it is now docked at southampton harbour. that breaking news is that seven men have been arrested on suspicion of seizing or exercising control of a ship by use of threats or force. the government refuses to change its mind on free school meal vouchers over the holidays. the prime minister says they re providing help through extra funding to local authorities. the welsh government apologises over misinterpretation of its covid rules saying period products are not affected. covid tests off the shelf boots says results take 12 minutes, but they ll cost £120 each. we heard earlier about how some parts of europe are coming under fresh coronavirus lockdowns,
faced with overwhelming force, the stowaways are said to have surrendered almost immediately. this was a very efficient operation. it only took nine minutes from the word go to the stowaways being rounded up and identified. and, of course, this reflects the training that both the fleet air arm crews and the sbs the special boat service undertake all the time. none of the 22 crew of the andromeda were injured in the incident. the seven stowaways have been detained. andy moore, bbc news. frank bough, one of the most familiar faces on bbc television for many years, has died at the age of 87. he presented grandstand, nationwide, and launched the forerunner of this programme breakfast time in 1983. david sillito reports. in the studios, they celebrated. 1983 and a tv landmark the birth of breakfast television in britain, and the man presenting was frank bough.
the first country in the west crushed by the pandemic is seeing a grim history repeating itself, and hopes it s not too late to turn the tide. mark lowen, bbc news, rome. a military operation onboard a tanker in the english channel has ended with the arrest of seven people. it s thought stowaways were causing problems on board the vessel, which had sailed from lagos in nigeria. the bbc‘s duncan kennedy has the latest. it really has been an extraordinary few hours ending with this special forces raid on a tanker in the solent behind me here. that raid involved four helicopters with teams of what s called a special boat service, sbs, special forces. they re based about 50 miles, about 70 km down the coast here. and they landed on the deck of this vessel in their four helicopters and used what was described as overwhelming force to retake the ship.