MANILA - The Philippine Coast Guard on Friday admitted to killing a Taiwan fisherman at sea in northern Philippines on Thursday at a press conference here on Friday.

However, the Coast Guard said its personnel opened fire at the Taiwan vessel in self-defense.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said in a statement issued at a press conference,  "the Taiwan fishing vessel repeatedly tried to ram our MCS 3001 forcing our MCS to fire warning shots and eventually on the machinery portion of the vessel to disable the same."

The Coast Guard ship was not able to verify what happened to the fishing vessel, and later got information that one of the Twainanese fisherman died, PCG Rear Admiral Rodolfo Diwata Isorena said.

The PCG will relieve all personnel on MCS3001 of their duties while the investigation is on going, the PCG said.

According to media reports, a Taiwan fisherman was shot dead on Thursday morning when a Filipino ship opened fire on a Taiwanese fishing boat.