Fisherman nets 'dummy torpedo'

The Chinese torpedo reeled in by a Vietnamese fisherman this week was a training torpedo lost during a naval exercise earlier this month, the Ministry of National Defense said on Friday.

On Tuesday, local fisherman Tran Minh Thanh spotted the object about 6.5 kilometers off the coast of Phu Yen, a province in south central Vietnam. Tran towed the torpedo to a beach in Tuy An District and turned it in to authorities, local news reported.

China's Defense Ministry said in an online statement on Friday that the torpedo was lost during an exercise by the People's Liberation Army Navy near the eastern waters of Hainan island early this month, and it was probably carried by currents to Vietnamese waters.