Freetown - The Sierra Leone patrol navy said on Monday that it had foiled an attempted attack by eight armed Guinean pirates on two licensed Chinese fishing trawlers in its waters.

Navy sub-lieutenant Joseph Samura said the Guineans, aboard a pirate boat, two of them in military garb, had wanted to steal the two fishing vessels in the country's north-western exclusive territorial waters near Guinea.

"We searched the (pirates') boat and found two rifles and a quantity of magazines, fully loaded," Samura told reporters.

A police official confirmed the arrest, adding that intensive investigations were under way.

Sierra Leone has a 400km coast of exclusive territorial waters, where mainly Asian vessels have permits for commercial fishing.