Hanoi  - A fishing boat arrived in the Vietnamese port of Vung Tau crammed with 48 Vietnamese fishermen who said their other four boats were ransacked and set adrift by an Indonesian patrol, officials said Wednesday.

Major Ngo Ngoc Minh of the coastal border guards said he received the fishermen when they arrived in Vung Tau Tuesday. He said the men were being reunited with their families.

The state-run newspaper Thanh Nien Wednesday quoted the fishermen as saying their four boats had been detained Sunday by an Indonesian naval or coast guard vessel while fishing in open water between Vietnam and Indonesia.

The crew said they were forced onto a fifth Vietnamese fishing boat that had been seized earlier by the Indonesians. The Indonesian forces allegedly confiscated everything on board the other four boats and set them adrift, leaving the Vietnamese to return home.

Minh said he could not verify the accuracy of the men's account, and was investigating the case.

The case is the latest of several recent incidents in which Vietnamese fishermen have been detained in the South China Sea.

Most recently, on July 25 China released 25 Vietnamese fishermen detained by Chinese coast guards in a disputed area of the South China Sea in June and July.

Large areas of the South China Sea are claimed by Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei.

Tensions have risen since a May 13 deadline for countries to submit maritime territorial claims to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. China rejected submissions by Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries as violating its own claims in the area. (dpa)