Three adult divers and a 14-year-old boy go missing in Malaysia

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Three adult divers and a 14-year-old boy went missing in Malaysia while diving at Pulau Tokong Sanggol in Mersing.

Local media reported that four foreign divers, three adults and a teenager, went missing in Malaysia on Wednesday, April 6. The group had gone diving at Pulau Tokong Sanggol in Mersing, nine miles from the mainland.

The missing four were tourists from Europe – a British man (46 years old), a Norwegian woman (35 years old), a French woman (18 years old) and a Dutchman (14 years old). They were reported missing around midday by the dive boat captain after all four failed to return from a dive.

Local emergency services launched an extensive search and rescue operation in an area of over 21 Mm2. Unfortunately, due to poor visibility and bad weather the operation had to be stopped at 7.30 p.m. Rescue teams resumed the search on Thursday morning.

Divers go missing in Malaysia – one person found

Rescuers have managed to find one of the missing persons. She is 35-year-old divemaster Kristine Grodem from Norway. After the rescue, rescuers transported her to safety. The woman was found by a tug approximately 22 Mm from the group’s last location.

According to the information Grodem gave, she lost sight of the other divers after the group drifted far away from the boat due to strong currents.

The search for the other three is still ongoing, and there is certainly optimism among the rescuers. All because the Norwegian woman who was rescued passed on the information that they had all surfaced and had working equipment.

Four Europeans went missing just days after Malaysia reopened its borders on 1 April. For almost two years, tourist traffic to the country had been halted. In the first four days alone since the borders reopened, more than 55,000 foreigners entered Malaysia.

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