Dramatic footage has emerged of the moment a Chinese ship sparked a diplomatic stand-off by crashing into a much smaller Vietnamese fishing boat.
The vessels were in disputed waters in the South China Sea - where China has erected a giant oil rig - when they collided last week, ramping up tensions between the two nations.
Now Vietnam has released footage of the incident which it says proves the sinking was a deliberate act - but China still disagrees over what it shows.
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Dramatic: Vietnam has released this footage which it says shows the moment a Chinese ship sank a much smaller Vietnamese fishing vessel in a disputed part of the South China Sea. China denies being the aggressor
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Evidence: The video was played to a press conference and further stokes tensions between the two countries
Footage of Vietnamese vessel after it was allegedly hit by...
State television broadcast the dramatic video today and it was played to journalists in a press conference.
Shot from a nearby Vietnamese craft, it appears to show the Chinese ship steaming towards two smaller Vietnamese vessels - leaving one of the fishing boats capsized in its wake.
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At the moment of impact, one man on the boat from where the footage was filmed yells in Vietnamese: 'Oh! The boat's sinking.'
'Look, it rammed and sank it!' another shouts.
Vietnamese fishing boats nearby rescued the 10 fishermen from the sunken vessel on May 26 - and Hanoi officials said the Chinese ship made no effort to help.
A new report on Vietnamese state network VTV said: 'The latest images recorded by Vietnamese fishermen at the time when fishing ship DNa-90152 was sunk by a Chinese ship serve as irrefutable evidence of the inhumane actions of China against Vietnamese fishermen.'
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, meanwhile, said it was the Vietnamese ships that were being aggressive.
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Approach: The video appears to show the Chinese vessel (left) chasing the red Vietnamese boats (right)
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Catching up: The larger boat moves closer to the smaller red boats until it is just a few feet away
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Controversy: The moment just before the impact, which left one of the fishing boats capsized in its wake
'In these seas. China's ships were in a defensive mode,' he said.
'Who was it who took the initiative for the clash? Who was it who created tension on the scene? This is very clear.'
Accounts of the incident from each country have been wildly disparate.
Last week, Hanoi officials said around 40 Chinese fishing boats had surrounded the Vietnamese craft before one of them rammed it and it sank.
But China's official Xinhua news agency, citing a government source, had said the vessel capsized after 'harassing and colliding with' a Chinese fishing boat.
Scores of ships are still squaring up despite several collisions after the platform was towed to the area last month, sparking anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam in which at least four workers were killed.
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Remains: The fishermen who escaped from the boat were rescued by nearby vessels, according to Vietnam
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Back to harbour: The Vietnamese boat, DNA 90152, was towed to the central coastal city of Danang
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Damaged relations: The boat after it returned to port. The airing of the footage has stoked further tensions
Admiral Ngo Ngoc Thu, vice commander of the Vietnam Coastguard, said today China had 'up to 140 ships' around the rig including 'six military vessels and many military planes'. He claimed China has already damaged 24 Vietnamese ships.
The rig, Haiyang Shiyou 981, is drilling between the Paracel islands occupied by China and the Vietnamese coast.
Each country claims the waters as its own.
Vietnam said today the rig had moved position, but was still in its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf.
China insists it is operating within its waters. The superpower claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, displaying its reach on official maps with a so-called nine-dash line that stretches deep into the maritime heart of south east Asia.
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Drilling for oil: This picture taken on May 14, 2014, from a Vietnamese coastguard ship, shows a Chinese coastguard vessel (left) sailing near the gigantic rig in disputed waters in the South China Sea
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The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to parts of the area, which many believe is rich in natural resources.
Today the Philippines accused China of pursuing an 'expansion agenda', saying it had evidence that Chinese ships were circling two disputed reefs.
'We are again bothered that there seems to be developments in other areas within the disputed seas,' said President Benigno Aquino.
'It looks like there are movements of ships,' he added. 'The pictures that I saw were just ships that can be used for reclamation.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2649831/Caught-video-The-moment-huge-Chinese-ship-ploughed-Vietnamese-fishing-boat-disputed-waters-South-China-Sea.html#ixzz340FQndM8
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