Search intensifies for man gone missing while looking for clams
BINTANGOR: Search for a 43-year- old man, who was reported missing while looking for clams in Sungai Stubah near here on Monday, has been intensified.
The search- and-recover ( SAR) team has been scouring an area within a 1km radius from the spot where the man was last seen.
Bintangor Fire and Rescue station chief Nicholas Belulin said the SAR operation resumed yesterday involving four agencies and several villagers.
The SAR team – comprising five firefighters from Bintangor station, five members of Civil Defence Force ( APM), three policemen and four staff members of Sarawak Rivers Board – combed Sungai Mupong and other tributaries yesterday but still unable to locate the missing man.
“They’re forced to call off the operation at 6.30pm today (yesterday) due to poor visibility, and would resume the search tomorrow (today),” said Nicholas, adding that the SAR men had conducted water surface searches throughout the operation.
The missing man, Clement Guntor, 43, is said to have set out in his boat to look for clams in Sungai Stubah around 7am on Monday, but has yet to return home since.
Fellow longhouse villagers spotted Clement’s boat floating in the river with nobody inside around 11am and informed his father, who lodged a missing person’s report at Bintangor police station around 2pm.
On being informed by police, Bintangor Fire and Rescue station dispatched six firefighters to the area to investigate before launching a SAR operation with the villagers, Nicholas said.