A laster gun that can be used to dazzle pirates, leaving them incapacited, is just one of the hi-tech sea security gadgets being unveiled at a defence exhibition in London.

The device is powerful enough to incapacitate pirates up to 1,000 yards away, while leaving them physically unscathed.

The Laser Dazzle System has been created to help ship owners fend off the pirate gangs that have seized a number of vessels off the coast of East Africa.

Military boats have been armed with similar gadgets for years, but the defence manufacturer BAE Systems is now making them available for use on cruise ships and tankers.

"We can put radar on the ships which looks over the horizon and can see a rubber boat. When it gets a bit nearer we can turn the engine off,” Dick Olver, BAE Systems's chairman, told the Daily Express.

Nick Stoppard, the firm's director of solutions development, added: “Piracy is on the rise. Attacks in 2008 were double those of the previous year. There is a clear need for better methods to help ships identify and evade the pirates before an attack occurs.”

There were 130 attempted hijackings by Somalian pirates in the first six months of this year, 19 more than during all of 2008.

An EU flotilla has been sent to patrol the waters – considered the most dangerous in the world – after a spate of high-profile attacks.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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