KOTA KINABALU: A Chinese couple’s diving trip to the beautiful Sipadan Island of Semporna turned ugly when the man drowned in an unfortunate turn of events.
The 37-year-old victim was with his wife and a group of other divers and their guides during to the Monday (May 19) morning accident.
According to Semporna OCPD, Supt Mohd Sabri Zainol, they received a call about the death of a Chinese tourist at around 6.45pm.
“The call was from one of the dive masters, who informed us that he and four other guides had brought with them a total of eight divers of various nationalities to the dive site,” he said in a statement.
At around 10.45am, one of the divers had jumped into the sea without permission from his guide and started sinking, he said.
Supt Sabri said the boatman saw the victim panicking and going underwater, so he informed the crew, prompting an emergency search and rescue there.
The divers searched and found the victim from a depth of about 25m, and was quickly brought to the surface and hauled up the boat, he said, adding emergency resuscitation was performed.
“The victim remained unconscious, was barely breathing and vomited a few times,” he said.
The victim was first taken to the Semporna Hospital for treatment before he was transferred to the Tawau Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, said Supt Sabri.
“We have classified this case as sudden death and a post-mortem will be conducted on Tuesday (May 20) afternoon,” he said.
He urged those with more information to come forward and assist police in their probe.
The officer to call is Asst Supt Mohammad Ali Amat at 013-2120852, or they can also head to any police station to provide information.
