Asia-Pacific News
Eight drown as boat capsizes in southern Malaysia
Feb 1, 2012, 10:19 GMT
Kuala Lumpur - Eight people drowned Wednesday and five were missing after a boat capsized off southern Malaysia, a police official said.
Twelve others were recovered alive on a beach in Kota Tinggi town in Johor state, 290 kilometres south of Kuala Lumpur, according to Kota Tinggi police chief Chief Superintendent Che Mahazan Che Aik.
'We found eight dead bodies on the beach this morning,' he told dpa on the phone. 'We also recovered 12 men and took them into custody for investigation.'
He said they had not established the identities and nationalities of the foreigners since they do not have travel documents with them.
'They claim to be from Iraq and Afghanistan, but we cannot fully ascertain this,' he said. 'They told us five of their companions remained missing.'
The police official added that they did not know where the foreigners set off from because they hardly speak English.
He said they were conducting search and rescue operations in the area in the hope of recovering the missing.
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