KUALA LUMPUR: Twenty-three people were missing in remote Borneo after a boat overloaded with holidaymakers heading home for a festival capsized yesterday in treacherous rapids on a jungle river, Malaysian police said.
The accident occurred on Malaysia’s longest river, the Rajang, which flows from deep in the rugged interior of Borneo island in the state of Sarawak.
Bakar Anak Sebau, police chief of the remote town of Belaga near the site of the mishap, said the boat’s capacity was just 74 passengers but that 181 people had been rescued after the accident yesterday morning.
“Twenty-three people are still missing,” Bakar said.
Most passengers were believed to be heading home for the coming weekend’s Gawai festival, a major cultural and religious observance for indigenous Borneo tribes that triggers heavy travel in Sarawak.
Bakar said no deaths have so far been confirmed.
He said the boat, which set off in Belaga, was heading downstream and was believed to have struck a rock while navigating one of many sections of rapids on the 560km waterway.
The accident took place deep in the wild and sparsely populated interior of Sarawak, one of two Malaysian states located on Borneo.
Sarawak is Malaysia’s largest state by area but also one of its least developed.
Rom Kulleh, an aide to a local Belaga politician, said that he saw the overturned and mostly submerged boat in the river while flying over the area in a helicopter.
“The boat was stuck in the water. It was upside-down,” he said, adding that some of those rescued were plucked from the water by passengers aboard other boats plying the river.
AFP
