HAIKOU, Nov. 3 -- One person has been confirmed dead and four others are still missing after a fishing boat sank on sea off southernmost China's Hainan Province Monday morning.

The provincial maritime affairs bureau confirmed that 12 of the 16 people on board the fishing boat were salvaged by crew on Italian cruise ship Costa Victoria that was passing through the sea area 36 nautical miles east of Qinglan Port in Wenchang City in Hainan. But one of them died and two others are still in critical condition.

The bureau has ordered air and sea search for the 4 missing.

The fishing boat with 100 tonnes of gross tonnage belongs to a sea fishing firm in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province.

It went offshore from Qinglan Port on Friday and started to returned to the port from 10 p.m. Sunday. It is not immediately known what caused its failure and sinking.