Death toll in Malaysia boat sinking rises to 24
Play
Kuala Lumpur (dpa) - Rescuers on Friday recovered nine more bodies of victims from a boat that sank off Malaysia, bringing the death toll to 24, a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency district commander said Friday.
Seventeen bodies of victims have been taken to the morgue of a hospital in the northern city of Ipoh while seven more bodies were still in rescue vessels, according to First Admiral Aliyas Hamdan.
Aliyas said rescuers also recovered a man drifting near the area where the boat sank on Thursday.
"He was the latest survivor found at noon today," he told reporters, adding that the man was too weak to walk or talk and was rushed to the hospital.
The 12-metre-long wooden boat was believed to be carrying some 70 Indonesians when it sank about 30 kilometres off Sabak Bernam, Aliyas said.
Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Friday that the 19 other suspected undocumented Indonesian migrants who survived the accident have been detained by the police, while the tragedy is being investigated.
Indonesian embassy officials have met with survivors.
Ahmad Zahid warned that boat operators and companies who smuggle migrants to and from Malaysia will face the full force of the law.
"Think of the human lives in your hands," he said in a press briefing. "Money cannot buy lives."
Survivors told rescuers that the boat was battered by huge waves, causing it to list before it sank, according to Aliyas.
He added that survivors said the boat was overloaded.
He said people aboard the boat were undocumented Indonesian migrants who had come to work in Malaysia and were returning to their hometown.
"If they are legal migrants, they wouldn't take risk riding in these kinds of vessels," Aliyas said.
