Vietnam has condemned China while saying that Chinese law enforcement personnel assaulted 10 Vietnamese fishermen, damaged their fishing gear and seized about 4 tons of fish catch near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.

Vietnam on Wednesday protested to China over what it said was an attack on a Vietnamese fishing boat three days ago in contested South China Sea waters that injured several fishermen.

Vietnam’s foreign ministry condemned on Wednesday China’s “brutal behavior” during a violent attack on Vietnamese fishers off the Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea. The 10 fishermen were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars’ worth of fish and equipment on Sunday in the resource-rich waterway claimed almost wholly by China and partially by Vietnam,