Bahrain's Interior Ministry planes will be used to patrol the coasts to check the re-emerging piracy in the region, the ministry's top officer announced yesterday, three days after suspected pirates snatched a Bahraini-owned fishing boat.

"The ministry's planes will operate along with the coastguard boats to help deter pirates and ensure the safety of Bahraini waters," Undersecretary, Sheikh Duaij bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, was quoted yesterday as saying.

He was speaking during a meeting with representatives of the Fishermen Society who said Friday's incident was no the first of such attacks. On Friday, armed assailants raided a Bahraini boat, in the Abu Luthama area – north of the Bahrain island and close to the Iranian coastal town of Bandar Abbas, and threw the fishermen overboard.

The society said the three fishermen were rescued by a passing Saudi ship. The ministry is still looking for the boat.

"Bahraini fishermen are terrified by the return of piracy," the society said. "All GCC fishermen are being threatened by the re-emerging phenomenon; not only Bahrainis," it warned.

Sheikh Duaij said the ministry was cooperating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to help locate and repatriate the hijacked boat.

"There is a great deal of cooperation between the GCC countries to confront and eradicate this problem which has not spared any of the countries in the region," he said.

Meanwhile, the head of the coastguard, Yousef Al Ghatam, warned fishermen to be particularly vigilant near border lines and ensure that their boats did not cross into international waters.

"Fishermen have to confine themselves to Bahraini waters to avoid problems," he said in a statement.

"Their boats must also be equipped with a VHF system to communicate easily in case of problems or threats," he said. "A GPS will also be handy to help the police locate the boat and rescue fishermen," he said.

Meanwhile, an ocean crime watchdog has said acts of piracy are rising sharply and global shipping is increasingly prone to "terrorist" attack.

In its report last year, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which monitors crime on the high seas, highlighted the dangers of a new and disturbing trend: attacks by militant groups like Al Qaida on tankers and merchant ships using small boats packed with explosives.

In direct reference to the attack on the French tanker the Limburg, rammed by an explosive-laden boat in the Gulf of Aden in October 2002, off the coast of Yemen near Al Mukalla about 350km from the capital Sanaa, it said such acts would be difficult to stop.