The British couple went missing while diving off the Pulau Tokong Sanggol, near the southeastern coastal town of Mersing, on Wednesday afternoon. The group also included an 18-year-old French woman from France and a 35-year-old Norwegian woman. The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) quickly launched a Search and Rescue Operation (SAR) in an effort to locate the team. Boats from the Coast Guard, police and fishing department started at around 14:45 local time (6:45 am GMT), following information received through the Putrajaya Maritime Rescue Coordination Center, said senior Nurul Coast Guard official Hizam Zakaria in a statement. “The divers were ignored by the captain of the boat that took them out to sea,” said Zakaria, Johor’s director at MMEA. “A frontal operational base has been set up at the public pier of the Mersing Regional Council.” As of 4 p.m. local time, the divers had not yet been found, he added. Pulau Tokong Sanggol, the island from which the team lost, is about nine nautical miles (16.6 km) from Tanjung Leman in Mersing. The area is popular with foreign and domestic tourists due to its resorts located along the coast and nearby islands, known for diving. Although such incidents are rare in Malaysia, last year the body of 31-year-old Karen Chong was found by local fishermen a few days after she went diving near Pulau Satang Island. He had dived with a group before leaving to complete a solo trip the day he was lost, local media reported at the time. In 2013, a British tourist died when she was hit by the propeller of a passing boat while diving on a resort island in the South China Sea. The Malaysian border reopened to foreign tourists on April 1 after being closed for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
