A British warship opened fire to deter what was thought to be an Iranian boat on a suicide mission off the coast of Bahrain in April, a report said.

Sailors onboard HMS Iron Duke were 'concerned the small boat is packed with lethal explosives', the UK's Daily Mail reported yesterday (August 19).

'Dramatic video footage shows a speedboat crewed by at least two men powering parallel to the 4,900-tonne warship as it patrolled off the coast of Bahrain,' the newspaper was quoted as saying in our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

The British ship fired warning machine-gun rounds into the sea before the vessel turned around and sped away.

'Military experts said it had 'all the appearances' of previous incidents when the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has used boats and planes to buzz Western warships to provoke a response,' says the newspaper.

A UK Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed the incident.

'An unidentified small vessel made an unusually close approach at speed to HMS Iron Duke,' he said.

'In accordance with standard operating procedures, HMS Iron Duke took a series of escalatory preventative measures which resulted in warning shots being fired.'

The incident took place in April but has only just come to light, the newspaper reported.

'The confrontation fuelled concerns about simmering tensions in the Gulf - and the nightmare scenario of hostilities breaking out accidentally between Iran and the West because of a small clash getting out of hand,' the report added.

The threat of suicide attacks at sea was highlighted in October 2000 when the 8,600-tonne USS Cole was hit by terrorists in a speedboat in Aden, killing 17 American sailors. – TradeArabia News Service