Fishermen may be kidnapped

There has been no ransom demand or information on them

KOTA KINABALU: Four fishermen may have been kidnapped. Their trawler was found running without anyone on board in waters off Lahad Datu.

Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Omar Mammah said a report on the missing men was received from the Sandakan owner of the vessel on Thursday.

No call for ransom or information about their whereabouts were received.

“We only found a vessel with its engine still running. The four crew members on board were nowhere to be found.”

“We are not able to classify this as kidnapping yet,” Omar said at a press conference yesterday.

Omar said the crewmen comprised of Malaysians and foreign workers in their 20s and 40s.

The boat, he said, was found near Pegasus Reef – off Tambisan Island Lahad Datu – not far from where a shooting took place a day earlier.

That incident occurred at about 7.30pm when four masked men attempted a tugboat heist.

Omar pointed out that the trawler’s owner lost contact with his fishing crew around the same time that the attempted heist took place.

“We are not sure if these two cases are connected.

“We need to get more details,” he said.

Omar said the skipper was shot in the thigh during the tugboat heist.

He is now recuperating at the Lahad Datu Hospital.

Sabah police were working with their counterparts in the Philippines to determine the identity of the suspects and the possible links to the cases that occurred, he said.

We found a vessel with its engine running and its crew missing. Datuk Omar Mammah