Yemeni authorities have detained 62 Egyptians for fishing without a permit in its territorial waters, the head of a fishermen's group in Suez said on Wednesday.

Bakry Aboul Hassan told Al-Ahram Arabic news website that the fishermen were on three boats when they were stopped on Saturday.

A representative of the ships' owners went to Yemen to settle the situation.

Egypt's foreign ministry said on Tuesday that the country's embassy in Sanaa was monitoring closely the conditions of the detained fishing boats.

The ministry's spokesman Badr Abdel-Atti said Yemeni prosecutors had started an investigation into the incident to determine the amount of fish that had been caught. He said contacts were ongoing for the quick release of the fishermen.

The ministry reiterated its call for Egyptians not to fish in other countries' territorial waters.

Egypt and Yemen share the shores of the Red Sea.