AMSTERDAM, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Russian forces helped foil an attempted hijacking of a Maersk Line <MAERSKb.CO> cargo ship by pirates in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia, a company spokesman told Dutch TV on Wednesday.

"There were shots fired at our ship and the crew did everything that was necessary to prevent the ship from being hijacked," Rob Mars, director of Maersk Ship Management in Rotterdam, told Dutch public broadcaster NOS.

He said the crew of the Dutch-registered container ship sent an alarm signal, increased its speed and changed course to avoid capture.

Mars confirmed a report that a Russian naval ship responded to the alarm by dispatching a helicopter, which then opened fire on the pirates after the ship had sped away from the hijackers.

The cargo ship, Nedlloyd Barentsz, was sailing from Asia through to the Mediterranean Sea when the incident occurred. None of the crew was injured, Dutch media reported.

Maersk Line security head Finn Brodersen told Danish news agency Ritzau the pirates had fired at the ship and that the Russian Navy abandoned the chase when the pirates entered Yemeni territorial waters.

Piracy in the Gulf of Aden has sent insurance prices soaring, forced some owners to send their ships around South Africa instead of the Suez Canal, and prompted an unprecedented deployment of foreign warships to the region.

A new get-tough approach by foreign navies has already yielded some success.

Since the beginning of the year, European Union forces have foiled an attack on a Greek-flagged oil tanker, a Malaysian military helicopter has scared away Somali pirates attacking an Indian ship, and the French navy has handed over eight pirates to Somali authorities. (Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block in Amsterdam and Kim McLaughlin in Copenhagen; Editing by Katie Nguyen)

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