More than 1,000 Britons on a luxury round-the-world cruise which left Dover last month have been ushered to safety amid fears their ship was being followed by pirates.

Holiday firm Fred Olsen says the Balmoral made emergency calls after encountering "suspicious" activity from two small craft in notorious waters off Somalia.

Military sources involved in monitoring the protected zone of the Gulf of Aden say yesterday's scare was "a false alarm".