One person has gone missing and is feared to have died after he fell overboard from a tug in the waters off Sarawak state in Malaysia on Wednesday, January 1.
The 65-year-old male was working as a crewmember on the tug, which was some five nautical miles off the coast of Sarawak’s Tanjung Manis District when he fell into the water at around noon (local time) on Wednesday.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia, the country’s Civil Defence Department, and local police despatched search and rescue (SAR) personnel to the area off Tanjung Manis after they were notified of the incident. The initial alert received by the authorities was reportedly sent by the missing victim’s own son.
The MMEA ordered the postponement of the SAR operation at 17:00 on Wednesday due to rough sea conditions. The search was resumed on the morning of Thursday, January 2, and was still ongoing as of the following day.