Chinese Fishing Boat Captain Killed in Clash With South Korean Coast Guards

Captain of a Chinese fishing boat was killed Friday in a fight with South Korean Coast guard officers, who were inspecting his ship for suspected illegal fishing.

The fight occurred when several South Korean coast guards boarded the Chinese ship in South Korea's western exclusive economic zone.

According to South Korean coast guard officer Cho Nam-yong, the Chinese captain resisted aggressively, and soon four other Chinese fishing ships approached the vessel and sent their crew aboard the Chinese vessel, reports the Associated Press.

The fishermen, wielding knives and beer bottles, began chocking some South Korean offers after knocking off their helmets. Five South Korean officers received minor injuries in the fight, a coast guard statement said.

As the fight progressed, one of the South Korean officers fired eight bullets though he didn't particularly aim at the captain, the coast guard said.

The 45-year-old captain, who got shot in the stomach, was then airlifted to Mokpo Hankook hospital where he was pronounced dead after 30 minutes.

Reacting to the incident, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that the government was shocked and extremely dissatisfied at the happening and had lodged a formal complaint.

"We demand that South Korea immediately carry out an earnest and thorough investigation and severely punish the person responsible, and report to China in a timely manner the result of the probe," Hong said, reports Reuters.

The South Korean Foreign ministry also informed China about the incident and offered condolences to the captain's family, a ministry official said.

Chinese fishing boats have been delving farther away from the Chinese coast due to scarcity of fish near its shores.

While South Korea's coast guards captured around 220 Chinese ships for illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea last year, a South Korean coast guard officer was killed in 2011 in a fight  with Chinese fishermen.