About 70 fishing workers were safe after being picked up by three helicopters from Taiwan while more than 50 people remained on board waiting for further rescue.

Some rescued cited the high waves as the cause of the fire. One of the fishermen on board is reported having jumped to the sea and is now missing. The cause of the fire is unclear yet.

Taiwan issued sea and land warnings on Tuesday as Typhoon Nakri swirled towards the island dumping heavy rain across southern regions. At 2400 GMT, Nakri was about 60 km (75 miles) southwest of Penghu, an island off Taiwan's west coast, moving northeast towards the island at 15 km per hour (9.4 mph).

The typhoon was packing maximum sustained winds of 65 km per hour (41 mph) and gusts of up to 90 km per hour (56 mph) and heavy rain could cause landslides.

(People's Daily July 9, 2002)