Search-and-rescue teams discover new geological features under Mulu's Deer Cave

MIRI: Search and rescue teams have discovered a 75-metre passageway and a deep, dark pool beneath the Deer Cave at the Mulu National Park.

"They have never been explored by humans before," said Miri Fire and Rescue Department chief Supt Law Poh Kiong on Monday (July 15).

These new discoveries came as the search for the missing Sarawakian tour guide Roviezal Robin enters its third day.

Supt Law said that the search teams will enter these new areas to try to find the 20-year-old Robin.

As of 8am on Monday, four search-and-rescue teams are combing the underground rivers and tunnels of the Deer Cave at the Mulu National Park.

The teams are made up of personnel from the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department's STORM unit, national park guides, police as well as locals.

Meanwhile, the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department said in its latest updates that the teams had carried out surface searches as well as underwater searches in the tunnels and along the river tributaries outside the cave system.

Robin and 66-year-old Dutch tourist Peter Hans Hoverkamp were swept away by flash floods inside the Deer Cave at about 6pm on Friday (July 12).

Hoverkamp was found drowned at 7am on Saturday (July 13).

Eight other tourists in the tour group survived when they managed to escape to higher ground.