Asia has seen a sharp rise in incidents of armed robbery against ships in January, latest official figures show.

There were seven confirmed incidents last month compared with just two seen in December, according to the Singapore-based Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) information sharing centre (ISC).

Of the seven incidents reported in January, three occurred on board ships while underway in the eastbound lane of the traffic separation scheme (TSS) in the Singapore Strait.