The Malaysian navy intercepted and boarded a Taiwanese fishing vessel which had been seized in a mutiny by Chinese crew members who locked up the captain and other Taiwanese sailors, officials said today.

Acting on a request from the Taiwan government, officers tracked down the 48 metre Dong Yih in the Malacca Straits on Sunday, said Malaysia's southern region Marine Police chief Abdul Aziz Yusof.

The navy stopped the vessel and boarded it near Pulau Pisang off Johor state, the navy's chief staff operations officer, Commander Jamel Abdul Rahman, said.

The boat, with 29 crew - four Taiwanese, 19 Chinese and six Filipinos - left Singapore on Jan 11 for the Indian Ocean, Abdul Aziz said, but the crew mutinied three days later and attempted to take it back to Singapore.

"The crew members were seeking a vacation. Apparently they were not happy with the captain and hijacked the ship," Taiwan's economic and cultural affairs representative executive assistant Odi S R Sun told AFP .

"They locked up the captain and three other Taiwanese crew members," he said.

The captain and the crew members were unharmed except for a Taiwanese who was slightly injured and could have been punched during the incident, Abdul Aziz said.

Alert raised by captain's family

The alert was raised when the family of captain Chew Kouching, 43, did not hear from him for several days.

"Chew would call his family every day, so when he failed to contact them, they suspected something amiss and alerted the Taiwanese authorities who then asked for help through our foreign ministry," Abdul Aziz said.

The Chinese alleged mutineers are in police custody pending further instructions from the foreign ministry, he said.

The ship, with the remaining crew aboard, is docked at the Malaysian Marine Department's jetty in Lido Beach, Johor Baru.

Taiwan authorities hope to be take the ship back to Taiwan and press charges against the crew members responsible, Sun said.