China's maritime law enforcement agency declared on Sunday that recent media reports of Chinese patrol ships shooting at a Vietnamese fishing boat were untrue.

According to a statement of the China Marine Surveillance (CMS) under the State Oceanic Administration, the CMS has recently carried out a routine patrol in the waters around the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea, over which China claims indisputable sovereignty.

However, the CMS ships did not have any clash with any Vietnamese boats, not to mention a so-called shooting incident, the statement said.

A report on the Chinese version website of Kyodo News on Saturday quoted an Vietnamese official as saying that a Vietnamese fishing boat was shot and damaged by some CMS ships around the Xisha Islands.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2012)