SANDAKAN, March 3 (Bernama) — The search and rescue operation (SAR) for boat mishap victims in the waters of Pulau Nunuyan near here is continued today after it was postponed at 6 pm yesterday.
According to a statement from the Sandakan Zone Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) here, the operation was continued at 7 am involving a search area of 187 nautical square miles divided into eight sectors.
Nine assets were mobilised to find four more victims who were still missing in the 6 am incident on Thursday (Feb 28) involving MMEA (three assets), Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) (three assets), Sandakan Marine Police Force (two assets) and the Malaysia Civil Defence Force (one asset) with 111 personnel.
The missing victims were two men, aged 40 and 27 years, and two girls, aged eight years and one year.
Five victims of the incident were rescued by a RMN combat boat after they were seen clinging to the overturned boat at 12.15 pm on Friday (March 1). They had been hanging on to the boat for 18 hours after the incident took place.
The body of another victim, a seven-year-old boy, Kimar Herman was found four hours later about 100 metres from where the boat was found.
Yesterday, the body of a 42-year-old woman was found at 12.44 pm by fishermen in the waters between Pulau Nunuyan and Pulau Berhala.
The boat was believed to be heading for Sandakan from Pulau Taganak, Philippines when it overturned due to the turbulent sea.
