Shootout off Semporna
A carefully planned police operation targeted at kidnap for ransom groups in waters off Sabah ended in success when an elite squad shot dead three gunmen and captured three others.
Timeline of vents 9.30pm: Location 1
> Seven men with four rifles and a pistol on a blue twin engine 80HP speed boat approach a fishing trawler.
> They rob the crewmen of cash, valuables and handphones, destroying their communication and radar equipment.
> They kidnap the vessel's skipper, a Filipino refugee. > The gunmen approach another fishing vessel. Most of crewmen run helter skelter with many jumping into the sea for safety.
> The gunmen take away an outboard engine and ransack the trawler.
> They head towards the trawler s light boat and kidnap a fisherman, who is believed to be a foreigner.
10pm
> The gunmen set their sights on a third boat, which they think is just another fishing vessel but in fact is the patrol vessel of General Operations Force's Tiger Platoon.
> The platoon, led by a corporal, see the gunmen coming and engage them in a shootout in pitch darkness.
> Three gunmen were killed and th others were captured while a po man was shot in the thigh and airlifted back to Semporna hos 1.50am Friday.
> The kidnapped skipper of the first vessel was also rescued. Authorities are still hunting for the remaining two gunmen and the second hostage. It could not be ascertained if they survived or were killed as the incident occurred in pitch darkness.
It is widely believed that cross-border kidnap groups have been responsible for at least six of the nine robberies and kidnappings in the east coast this year.
They are believed to be based in the Tawi Tawi chain of islands close to Sabah waters.