Four European divers missing off Johor coast

KUALA LUMPUR - Four European divers went missing off the Johor coast on Wednesday and authorities have launched a search, the coastguard said.

Two British men aged 14 and 46, an 18-year-old Frenchwoman and a 35-year-old Norwegian woman disappeared after going diving near a small island, they said.

A hunt involving boats from the coastguard, the police and the fisheries department was launched at 2:45 pm (0645 GMT), said senior coastguard official Nurul Hizam Zakaria in a statement.

The island where they disappeared, Pulau Tokong Sanggol, is about 15km off the coast of Johor.

The area is popular with foreign and domestic visitors -- there are resorts dotted along the coast and on nearby islands.

Diving accidents, while rare, do occasionally take place in Malaysia.

In 2013, a British tourist died when she was struck by a passing boat's propeller while diving off resort islands in the South China Sea.

The tropical Southeast Asian nation's white-sand beaches and lush rainforests have long made it a major draw, but the tourism industry was hit hard by travel curbs during the coronavirus pandemic.

The country's borders reopened to foreign tourists last week after a two-year closure. - AFP