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Chinese tourist missing while snorkelling found drowned in Malaysia

arifnsn October 7, 2023

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Rescuers have found the body of a Chinese tourist, some 15 hours after the man was reported to have gone missing while snorkelling at an island resort off the east coast Semporna district in Malaysia’s Sabah state.

Semporna Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) director Commander Amir Shubli said the victim, identified as Lin Jun Yong, 25, had gone snorkelling with a friend at Bum-Bum island at 5.15pm (local time) on Thursday.

A search and rescue operation was launched around midnight after initial efforts by resort workers failed to locate him.

“The victim’s body was found near Dataran Lepa at 10.40am today (Friday) by a MMEA patrol boat,” he said in a statement.

“The remains were brought to the Guru Jetty on Semporna mainland for a postmortem,” he added.

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Semporna police chief Superintendent Mohd Farhan Lee Abdullah said the victim and his friend had snorkelled without wearing safety jackets as they thought they could swim without it.

The two were out in the sea some 10m to 15m from the resort jetty.

Mohd Farhan said the friend decided to return to the resort after he failed to locate the victim at 5.15pm.

“The tide was high when they were snorkelling,” he said, adding that the CCTV at the jetty area was not functioning.

This article was first published by The Star