Helicopters had managed to airlift about 110 fishermen after the Taiwan-registered fishing ship, called "Yuanshen 2", caught fire, a local official said.

"Until this moment, we have saved 110 out of the 133 people stranded on the boat," the official said.

Details of the fire, like how it happended were still not clear.

Local televison footage earlier Tuesday showed a group of fishermen huddling together waiting for rescue near the bow of the boat while fires raged in the rest of the ship.

The television said two fishermen threw themselves into the rough seas whipped by tropical storm Nakri, which was heading towards the island, packing gusty winds and torrential rains.

The fate of the two was not known as of midday Tuesday.

Taiwan issued sea and land warnings on Tuesday as Typhoon Nakri swirled towards the island dumping heavy rain across southern regions. At 2400 GMT, Nakri was about 60 km (75 miles) southwest of Penghu, an island off Taiwan's west coast, moving northeast towards the island at 15 km per hour (9.4 mph).

The typhoon was packing maximum sustained winds of 65 km per hour (41 mph) and gusts of up to 90 km per hour (56 mph) and heavy rain could cause landslides.

Rain was already falling across southern parts of the island on Tuesday morning, media reported.

Cable television TVBS said the fishing boat caught fire and lost power while heading to Kaohsiung port to take shelter from the approaching tropical storm Nakri.

(China Daily July 9, 2002)