Twelve crew members, including 10 Chinese sailors, were rescued by patrol vessels of the Japanese Coast Guard on Wednesday after a Cambodian-registered ship caught fire off southwestern Japanese prefecture of Nagasaki.

The accident happened at around 9:30 am local time when a fire broke out on the 2327-ton freighter, "DONG HE," in waters about 120 km west off shore of Sasebo City of the prefecture, the Japanese Coast Guard report said.

After the Coast Guard received a distress call from the freighter, it dispatched several patrol vessels to search for the boat, and its patrol plane found the cargo ship in the sea area. Its patrol vessels picked up 10 Chinese and two sailors from Indonesia and Myanmar by just before noon.

The Coast Guard said that the sailors are all safe, adding that no one was injured during the rescue operation.

An official of the Chinese Consulate-General in Nagasaki also confirmed that all the Chinese crew members were rescued and they are well. The Coast Guard said that the freighter was sailing from the Japanese port of Nagoya to Haimen Port in China.