Rescuers are still searching for eight fishermen who went missing after a fishing boat capsized in the Bohai Bay on Monday night.

The boat, Jinzhou Fishing 15315, capsized around 10:30 PM on Monday about 20 nautical miles southeast of the Jinzhou port, in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Local rescue headquarters sent 15 ships and one helicopter to the area where the ill-fated fishing boat had overturned but were unable to get close to the capsized boat because of the stormy seas, said an official in charge of the rescue operation.

"Rescuers had to jump in the water and swim to the boat. They heard fishermen pounding for help on the wall of the cabin and concluded they must be trapped inside," the official said.

The rescuers cut open the bilge on Tuesday afternoon but found none. They searched other areas of the boat in vain, according to the official.

On Wednesday morning, using six larger vessels, rescuers managed to tug the fishing boat back to shore, but found no trace of the missing fishermen, according to the rescue headquarters.

The cause of the accident is being investigated.

(Xinhua News Agency December 6, 2006)