Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered all-out rescue efforts after a deep-sea Chinese fishing vessel sank Tuesday morning in the Indian Ocean.

The Chinese deep-sea fishing vessel capsized in the central Indian Ocean at about 3:00 a.m. Beijing Time on Tuesday (19:00 p.m. GMT Monday), leaving the crew of 17 Chinese, 17 Indonesian and five Filipino sailors missing. So far, no missing persons have been found and rescue and search work are underway.

After the accident, President Xi gave instructions, urging the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Chinese Ministry of Transport and Shandong Province to immediately activate the emergency response mechanism to verify the situation and send additional rescue forces.

He also called for coordinating international maritime search and rescue assistance, and making every effort to carry out rescue.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant embassies abroad should strengthen contact with relevant local parties to coordinate the search and rescue work, Xi added.

Xi also ordered to strengthen early warning alerts of safety risks for distant-sea operation to ensure the safety of people's lives and property.

Premier Li Qiang, in a separate instruction, demanded maximum efforts to coordinate relative parties to organize the rescue work and reduce casualties.

China's maritime search and rescue center had asked relevant countries for help and the Chinese Foreign Ministry had contacted relevant departments in Australia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries to join the search and rescue operations.

(Cover: File photo of fishing boats heading out to sea in Weihai, Shandong Province. /Xinhua)