Hanoi  - The captain of a South Korean freighter anchored off the Vietnamese coast killed his chief mechanic in a fight before committing suicide, news reports said Monday.

Sailors told the Vietnamese Coast Guard that the ship's captain Hong Dong Kwon, 45, had killed mechanic Heo Seong Kyu, 45, during a fight with several sailors. After Heo died, the sailors confined Hong in his own cabin.

When Coast Guard officers, who had boarded the freighter Wvivace at 4 am Saturday after being notified of the incident by South Korean maritime officials, asked the crew to open Hong's cabin, they found he had hung himself, the newspaper An Ninh Thu Do (Capital Security) said.

They also found Heo lying dead in his cabin with a slashed throat.

The ship was anchored off the port of Haiphong, some 100 kilometres east of Hanoi, awaiting docking.

South Korea's embassy in Hanoi has asked Vietnam to allow the bodies to be repatriated, where police will further investigate the case.

The Wvivace had sailed from the Indian port of Visakhapatnam with 17 sailors on board, carrying a cargo of 6.5 tons of dried beans, news reports said. (dpa)