Cairo - Egyptian fishermen who freed themselves from their Somali pirate captors with the pirates' own weapons are expected in the Suez Canal port of Ataka on Saturday, a top union official said Tuesday.

The 34 fishermen reportedly fought off the pirates using tools on the boats and the pirates' weapons late last week, killing at least two and capturing at least four others.

Bakri Abul-Hassan, the head of the Egyptian Fishermen's Trade Union, said that the men were sailing north through the Red Sea with the four Somalis in custody.

They were travelling slowly because the boats had not been maintained since the pirates seized them in April, Abul-Hassan told Cairo's al-Ahram newspaper.

"I will never forget what happened to me and the rest of the families of the 34, or how we were ignored by the Foreign Ministry officials," said Nawal Taher, the mother of one of the fishermen.

"I will not forget how (Deputy Foreign Minister) Ahmed Rizq said 'everyone is responsible for himself. The Foreign Ministry has nothing to do with fishermen. You collect the ransom and we will send it'," Cairo's daily al-Masry al-Youm quoted her as saying.

Residents of the fishermen's hometown of Damietta are planning a massive, traditional celebration to celebrate their return, Ahmed Amasha told the newspaper.

Abul-Hassan, of the Fishermen's Union, called on the government to announce the day the men return to Egypt as a national day celebrating fishermen. In commemoration of the men's victory, he suggested, the country could honour elder fishermen and the owners of fishing boats each year.

The 34 had initially been expected to dock in the Yemeni port of Aden and to fly back to Egypt, but the crews apparently preferred to sail home and to turn the pirates over to Egyptian authorities.(dpa)