A fishing boat with nine sailors on board is missing after losing contact with its sister ship off the east China coast early Sunday morning, local authorities said.

The two boats, both from southeast China's Fujian Province, have been fishing side by side off the coast of Ningbo, eastern Zhejiang Province since Saturday, said a spokesman with the Zhejiang Maritime Search and Rescue Center.

Sailors aboard one of the two boats, Minxiayu 1136, called the police early Sunday morning after they found Minxiayu 1121 had lost touch with them, the spokesman said.

One sailor from the missing boat was rescued from the water at about 10:00 AM by a South Korean freighter passing by, the spokesman said.

More than 10 boats and a helicopter have been dispatched to search the area, but no traces have been found, he said.

"No SOS signals have been received from the missing boat, so we're not clear about what happened to that boat," he said.

The Ningbo Maritime Affairs Bureau sent staff members to find the South Korean freighter, now in Shanghai, to get more information, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2007)