Rescuers found a Malaysian tour guide alive some eight hours after his boat sank off Borneo island carrying seven foreign tourists aboard, police said yesterday.
Tour guide Robert Ernest, 26, was found treading water after sundown on Tuesday, police officials said on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Mariamah Kawari, the wife of another guide rescued from the wreck, drowned in the accident that occurred shortly before midday on Tuesday, the Sandakan marine police division said in a faxed statement yesterday.
She was the only casualty among the 11 people on board.
Four Australians, two Britons and a New Zealander were rescued by police in the hours following the sinking -- blamed on the rough weather and choppy waters -- between Libaran island and Sandakan in Malaysia's Sabah state.
The boat's skipper and Mariamah Kawari's husband were also saved.
The British citizens were identified as Russell Holdsworth and Christina Grant. The Australians are Suzanne Clifton, Ross Webber, Megan Johns and Prudence Vence, the Sandakan marine police statement said.
The New Zealand citizen was identified as Kimberly Chinpoy.
Chinpoy was pregnant and got trapped in an air bubble inside the boat when it flipped over, the New Zealand Press Association said.
She dived down and swam out to join the other tourists clinging to the side of the overturned vessel, the report said.
Sabah is a popular adventure vacation spot for tourists who enjoy jungle hikes, diving and boat excursions.
The accident was the third in three weeks involving foreigners in one of Malaysia's most popular tourist draws, the Star newspaper said.
In the first week of this year, a South Korean woman and a Japanese woman drowned at Sapi island off Sabah's capital, Kota Kinabalu, the Star newspaper said.
Last week, seven Japanese and Chinese tourists were injured when a tourist bus crashed in Papar town, the paper added.
Zakaria Edris, the political secretary to Sabah's chief minister, said the skipper was "extremely brave" to go out in such nasty weather, the national news agency Bernama said.
Malaysia's meteorological service had issued a warning for rough seas off Sabah that day.
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