KOTA KINABALU: An elderly man drowned while looking for nipah (palm) shoots in Sabah’s east coast Beluran district.
Damat Anggah, 80, had gone out on a boat to look for the plant at a river 1.5km from the jetty at Kampung Air at 9am on Sunday.
A Fire and Rescue Department spokesman said villagers noticed the man was no longer on his boat at 11am and told his family.
“The victim’s son went out to look for him with a friend at 3pm. They only found the victim’s hat near the boat,” said the spokesman when contacted yesterday.
A search was later triggered by six villagers. The department was alerted when the search party failed to locate the victim.
The spokesman said a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency team found the man’s remains at 11.45pm about 10m from where his boat was last seen.
“The body was handed over to the police for the next course of action,” he said.
In a separate incident, the search continued for a 19-year-old who went missing while fishing on Sunday.
The Kudat fire station received a distress call from the public at 4.52pm that Aldrian Abdul Hatam had gone missing in waters off Malawati Island.
Personnel from the Kudat fire station and the Banggi Island volunteer fire team scoured the coastline but the exercise was suspended at 7.30pm. The operation resumed at 8am yesterday.
