All 32 people on board a fishing boat are safe after the ship was found in distress on its way home near Nansha Islands, off south China's Hainan Province on Thursday, according to the local emergency management office.

The fishing boat, registered in Hainan Qionghai, was confronted with adverse ocean conditions at 6:00 a.m. local time (22:00 GMT) and lost connection after sending an alarm for rescue.

Joint rescue work was launched immediately by the Hainan Provincial Emergency Management Department and Hainan Maritime.

All people were safely rescued by a Vietnam fishing ship at around 10:00 a.m. local time.

A Chinese merchant ship has arrived at the scene to help transfer all rescued people.