OSAKA -- Two people were seriously injured and three others went missing after a fishing boat sank in choppy waters early Wednesday in Shimane Prefecture in western Japan, local press reported.

The Japan Coast Guard received a report at around 4:40 a.m. local time that a fishing boat had sunk in waters in Masuda city in the prefecture. Patrol boats of the coast guard were dispatched to the scene where the fishing boat from Nagasaki Prefecture sank. Seventeen of 20 crew members on board the boat were rescued later including two who were seriously injured, while three others went missing.

The Japan Coast Guard has sent patrols boats and aircraft to search for the missing fishermen while investigating the cause of the accident, according to the report.