TUARAN: Six individuals, including a woman, who went missing for over 15 hours while looking for clams at a mangrove forest in Bukit Paying here, were found safe today.
All victims aged between 16 and 60 were reported missing by their friends at 8pm yesterday after they failed to return to their meeting point.
District fire and rescue chief Abdul Qawie Abdul Gapar said that the department had received a distress call at 8.40pm and deployed a team of 20 personnel as well as a rescue dog unit to the scene.
“The search and rescue (SAR) operation was conducted together with teams from the police, navy, and Rela until 10.45pm," he said, adding the operation resumed at 8am today.
At 9.23am, members of the public discovered three of the six who managed to find their way out from the mangrove area.
Abdul Qawie noted that firefighters found the remaining three victims six mintues later, about 200 metres away from where the first three individuals were found.
“All victims are reported safe and have been handed over to the police for further investigation," he said, adding that the SAR operation ended at noon.
