'Hopes of finding the missing people is fading but we will not give up,' transport ministry official Cheng Chien-chung told AFP.

'We've expanded the search area,' he said, adding that two helicopters and eight coastguard and naval vessels had been sent to the area where the trawler sank Sunday after sending out a distress signal around 10.00 pm.

The crew included sailors from Taiwan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

A panic-stricken survivor told rescuers that he had witnessed one of the crew members being attacked by sharks and blown away by high waves whipped up by strong winds.

The coastguard, navy and aerial police on Monday managed to rescue nine of the 28-strong crew after the 'Fu Chi Hsiang No. 767,' a 993-tonne fishing boat based in the island's Kaohsiung city, sank off Taiwan's southern-most tip late on Sunday.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear. -- AFP