KOTA KINABALU: An 80-year-old man drowned while looking for nipah (palm) shoots in Sabah’s east coast Beluran district on Sunday (July 28).
Damat Anggah had gone out on a boat at 9am to look for the plants along a river, some 1.5km from the jetty at Kampung Air.
A Fire and Rescue Department spokesman said villagers realised he was missing at around 11am.
“They went to the family and told them the man was no longer on his boat,” the spokesman said when contacted on Monday (July 29).
“The victim’s son and a friend went out to look for him at 3pm.
“They only found his hat near the boat,” he added.
Six villagers then assisted in the search and contacted the department through the MERS 999 number at 5.51pm after they failed to locare Damat.
A Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) team later found the man’s body about 10m from where his boat was seen.
“The body was then handed over to the police for the next course of action,” he said, adding that the operation ended at 1am on Monday.
In a separate incident, a search is ongoing for a 19-year-old man who is missing after going out to fish in northern Kudat district on Sunday.
The Kudat fire station received a distress call at 4.52pm, saying Aldrian Abdul Hatam had gone missing in waters off Malawati Island.
The spokesman said according to the boat operator who accompanied the victim, he failed to find Aldrian.
Kudat fire station personnel were assisted by the Banggi Island volunteer fire team in the search and rescue (SAR) operation along the coastline, but it was suspended at 7.30pm.
The spokesman said the SAR resumed at 8am on Monday with rescuers in two boats checking within a 5km radius of where Aldrian was last seen.
