Beijing has so far refrained from official comment about the incident, in which a trawler collided with the South Korean vessel and capsized Saturday in the Yellow Sea, according to South Korean officials and reports.

The situation recalled the collision in September of a Chinese fishing trawler and two Japanese coastguard vessels -- an incident that sent relations between Beijing and Tokyo plummeting to their worst level in years.

It also comes amid soaring tensions on the Korean peninsula.

South Korean troops Monday started a live-fire artillery exercise on a border island shelled by the North last month, the defence ministry said, despite threats by North Korea to hit back.

Most postings seen in Chinese Internet chatrooms blamed South Korea for seeking to provoke China and urged the government to punish the South, although some web users called for calm.

Using an obscenity to describe South Koreans, one Chinese micro-blogger named Qiu Yang from the central province of Hunan accused Seoul of "flaunting powerful friends to bully others".

"We must help the North Koreans to destroy the US-South Korean alliance," Qiu wrote on popular web portal sina.com.

Another web user identified as Cai Xia from northeastern China wrote: "The little Japanese didn't dare to kill any of us in the ship collision near the Diaoyu islands; how can the number two devil be so brash to do such a thing!"

"South Korea, the running dog of America, is seeking to provoke China -- what are they thinking," said another irate Internet user from the eastern province of Anhui.

China's foreign ministry refused to immediately comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.

Several state newspapers reported on the collision, many citing foreign media reports, and noted that South Korea had expressed regret over the dead and missing.

Four coastguard officers were injured as they tried to arrest the crew of the Chinese boat for illegal fishing in South Korean waters and after the fishermen attacked the officers, officials and reports said Sunday.

The BBC posted a video of the clash filed by the coastguard, which appears to show the fishermen fending off the officers with metal bars.

Three fishermen have been held for questioning, a South Korean coastguard spokesman told AFP on Monday

"South Korea, again it is you bastards and this was not even in your fishing waters. You should mind your own ways. One day you will disappear from Asia," a Chinese web user from Sichuan province said on sina.com.

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