This is the dramatic moment a ransom of $3million was paid to Somali pirates to end the world's biggest ship hijacking.

The canister full of cash was parachuted onto the Sirius Star - observed by the U.S. Navy who provided these images - and the two-month ordeal of the 25 crew, including two Britons, was finally over.

However things went badly wrong for the pirates soon after the drop - they squabbled over how to split the money and then a wave washed off their getaway boat and drowned five of them.

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Dramatic: The apparent ransom payment is delivered via a parachuted container to pirates holding the Sirius Star

The pirates originally wanted more than £16 million to release the boat and its £65 million load of oil. Eventually they accepted the offer of $3million (around £2million).

A close up of the parachuted ransom falling towards the Sirius Star

But as they made off they continued to row about the payout.

'Two of them swam and survived. One is still missing.

The weather was so terrible that it blew the boat over, then sank it.

We got five dead bodies and we are still searching for the missing one. The waves were disastrous,' said Farah Osman, an associate of the gang.

It is not known what happened to the money or those who survived.

After the squabbling gang left the Saudi supertanker its crew were free to move to a safe port.

Both British crewmen  -  chief engineer Peter French and second officer James Grad  -  said they were well treated by the pirates.

Andrew Mwanguru, of the East African Seafarers Assistance programme, based in the Kenyan port of Mombasa, said: 'The last batch of gunmen have disembarked from the Sirius Star. She is now steaming out to safe waters.'

Mr Mwanguru said it was heading south and possible destinations included Mombasa for resupplying or going on to South Africa.

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Flying drop: The small aircraft flies towards the MV Sirius Star during the apparent parachuted payment

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Delivered: The aircraft appears to fly off after dropping the ransom on the ship

Mr Osman, speaking from Haradheere, said the pirates finally agreed the ransom of $3million with the ship's owners, Vela International.

The company has declined to comment. 

The Sirius Star was captured in November with 25 crew members, 450 nautical miles southeast of Kenya in the boldest seizure to date by Somali pirates.

The rampant piracy off Somalia worsened dramatically in 2008 as an Islamist insurgency fuelled chaos onshore.

Released: Sirius Star was seized in November by Somali pirates. Reports suggest the supertanker has now been freed

The piracy in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean shipping lanes has sent shipping insurance prices soaring, made some owners choose to go round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal, and brought an unprecedented deployment of international warships to the region.

The crew of the Sirius are from Britain, Poland, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines.

The U.S. Navy, which has had a warship close to the Sirius monitoring the saga, could not immediately confirm its release.

The U.S. Navy said on Thursday it was planning to launch a force to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden, an offshoot of an earlier mission. Chinese warships also began anti-piracy patrols off Somalia this week.

Spain will send up to 395 military personnel and a patrol plane to the waters off Somalia to defend merchant ships from pirates, the government said on Friday.

Underlining the danger, Kenya Ports Authority said on Friday that Somali pirates had attacked a Kenyan fishing vessel north of Mombasa, kidnapping three Indian nationals on board.

Neither the ship nor Kenyan crew, however, were taken, officials said, adding full details of the incident on Thursday in waters near the Somali border were still not available.