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| Rescue workers recover a sunken ferry boat from the Anap river in the central Sarawak state on the Malaysian side of Borneo island on October 19. The death toll from the ferry boat collision in the remote interior of Borneo has risen to six, and up to seven people are feared missing, Malaysian police have said. |
The death toll from a ferry boat collision in the remote interior of Borneo has risen to six, and up to seven people are feared missing, Malaysian police said Tuesday.
Seventeen people were rescued after Monday's accident on the upper reaches of the Anap river in central Sarawak state, on Malaysia's half of Borneo island, when an express boat collided with a barge.
"We recovered the bodies of two adult women Tuesday," Naoi Anak Simot, a local police official in Tatau near the coastal town of Bintulu, told AFP.
Naoi said search and rescue operations are continuing.
"We are assuming there were 30 passengers on the ferry. We think seven more people may still be missing," he said.
Iswandi Ken, Bintulu marine operations force commander, told AFP that about 20 to 30 people were believed to be on board, but the lack of certainty has hampered the rescue effort.
Many parts of Sarawak, an underdeveloped and heavily forested state, are only accessible by air or by river. Transport along the long waterways is popular with people travelling between inland areas and coastal towns.
The Star daily quoted a survivor, Jackson Ukit, as saying there were at least 30 people on board the ill-fated vessel.
"It was chaotic. There was a crash and suddenly we were underwater," the 39-year-old told the daily from the hospital where he was taken after managing to swim out of the wreckage.
The Star said that indigenous tribespeople from a nearby settlement, as well as workers from a timber camp, rushed to assist police in the rescue effort.
