SHANGHAI - A fishing boat with seven people on board went missing on Sunday off the coast of Shanghai in east China, Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) of Shanghai said in a statement.

The wooden vessel, Lunanyu 400160, lost contact with the monitoring system of the administration when it was about six nautical miles off the coast of Shanghai's Nanhui county at around 6:57 pm, the statement said.

MSA Shanghai has sent two vessels to search the missing people and the boat.

It has alerted local sea rescue and fishery authorities to send more vessels for the search and rescue efforts.