BEIJING, March 16 -- China has expressed high concern over a trawler that was sunk by Argentina's coast guard and urged the Argentine side to take effective measures to prevent future incidents of this kind.

A Chinese trawler was shot by Argentina's coast guard after being chased for several hours, while fishing in waters near Argentina on Monday morning (Beijing time), leading to the sinking of the vessel after water running into it, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.

The Foreign Ministry and Chinese embassy in Argentina have urgently lodged representations with the Argentine side, expressing grave concern over the incident, according to Lu.

China demanded the Argentine side to thoroughly investigate the incident and update the Chinese side, and safeguard Chinese sailors' security and legitimate rights and interests.

"China urged the Argentine side to take effective measures to prevent such incident from happening again," Lu said.

There were no fatalities. Four sailors were rescued by Argentina's coast guard and the remaining 28 were rescued by Chinese trawlers nearby.