( CNN ) -- The French Navy said they seized 11 pirates Sunday after they apparently mistook a French military vessel for a commercial ship and made a run at it . A French navy sailor speaks to one of 11 pirates on board the French warship the Nivose after their capture . Two pirate assault boats approached the Nivose `` at great speed , '' Capt . Christophe Prazuck said , but a French helicopter intervened before the attackers had time to fire at the French navy ship . The helicopter fired warning shots , he said . The pirates , who had a mother ship as well as the two assault boats , are being held for questioning on the Nivose , Prazuck said . The vessels were carrying AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades , but the pirates did not fire , he said . The incident took place about 1,000 km ( 620 miles ) east of Mombasa , Kenya , at 8:30 a.m. local time ( 0430 GMT ) he added . In the past three weeks , the Nivose has intercepted 24 suspected pirates as part of a European Union anti-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia , which has become a piracy hotspot . Over the past year , more than 100 suspected pirates have been picked up , Prazuck said . Of that total , 27 have been released , and more than 70 taken to jail in France , handed to authorities in Somalia or taken to Kenya under an EU agreement with the government in Nairobi . The Nivose seized three other suspected pirates Thursday morning , the French military spokesman said , but released them the next day for lack of evidence . But a day later , the Seychelles coast guard picked up the same three men . They claimed they were fishermen , but had no license to fish in the Seychelles exclusive economic zone , Prazuck said . Pirates seized a ship that was carrying wheat and used vehicles to Mogadishu , Somalia , on Saturday , according to NATO , which also patrols the area . The ship , the Almezaan , now appears to be heading for a Somali village called Harradera , known as a pirate base , Cmdr . Chris Davies told CNN . The ship did not send a distress signal until 4 a.m. Sunday , 18 hours after it was hijacked in the Indian Ocean , he said . No NATO ships were in the area at the time , he added . The Panamanian-flagged ship had a crew of 18 Indians as of April 2008 , the last listing for it on the Web site of the International Transport Workers ' Federation . Pirates also hijacked a British-owned bulk carrier in the Indian Ocean . The MV Ariana was carrying 35,000 tons of soya about 250 nautical miles ( 287 miles ) northwest of the Seychelles when it was seized around dawn . The crew members are Ukrainians and they are not believed to be harmed , NATO said . It is unclear how many crew members were aboard the vessel and how it came to be attacked . NATO said it was unaware of ransom demands or any threats against those aboard . NATO said a European Union Protection Aircraft has been deployed to monitor and track the MV Ariana , which is making its way toward Somalia -- the epicenter of the pirate industry . Piracy has been soaring off the coast of eastern Africa -- particularly Somalia , which has not had an effective government since 1991 . Somali pirates have defied foreign navies patrolling the waters and have collected large ransoms from shipping companies . Ransoms started out in the tens of thousands of dollars and have since climbed into the millions . Journalist Ashleigh Nghiem contributed to this report .
French navy seizes 11 pirates after they threaten navy vessel . In past three weeks , the Nivose has intercepted 24 suspected pirates . Piracy is a major problem in the waters off Somalia . Somalia has not had a stable government in place since 1991 .