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Chinese fisherman shot dead in clash with S. Korea coastguard

South Korean coastguard officers escort Chinese sailors after their boat arrived in the southwestern port of Mokpo on October 17, 2012, a day after it was seized for illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea/AFP

South Korean coastguard officers escort Chinese sailors after their boat arrived in the southwestern port of Mokpo on October 17, 2012, a day after it was seized for illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea/AFP

SEOUL, October 10 – A Chinese fisherman was shot dead Friday in a clash that saw South Korean coastguard officers board a number of Chinese vessels suspected of illegal fishing, officials said.

“There was an incident during a crackdown on illegal fishing by Chinese fishing boats,” a South Korean coastguard spokesman said.

He confirmed the fisherman’s death, but refused to specify the precise cause until a full autopsy had been performed.

The spokesman said live rounds had been fired during the incident, which took place Friday morning around 80 miles (130 kilometres) off the western island of Wangdeung in the Yellow Sea.

The South’s Yonhap news agency identified the dead man as a 45-year-old, surnamed Song, and said the coastguard had boarded his vessel in South Korea’s exclusive economic zone.

He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in Mokpo on the mainland, where an emergency ward staffer at the hospital told AFP that X-rays had shown a bullet lodged in Song’s chest.

“His lungs were full of blood”, the staffer said.

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