Missing teenage Dutch diver believed dead

MERSING: Dutch teenage diver Nathen Renze Chesters, 14, who went missing with three others at Tokong Sanggol Island last Wednesday, has died of exhaustion, according to his father.

Johor Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) director First Maritime Admiral Nurul Hizam Zakaria said the victim's father, British national Adrian Peter Chesters, 46, told this to the authorities after he was rescued, together with French woman Alexia Alexandra Molina, 18, by local fishermen at a location south of Pengerang, near Kota Tinggi, at 1 am today.

"The Maritime Rescue Sub Centre (MRSC) Johor Bahru has informed the Indonesian authorities to help locate the teenager who is believed to have died and drifted into Indonesian waters," he said in a statement here today.

He said MMEA had ended the 'Op Carilamat' at 1.30 pm today following the discovery of three of the four missing foreign divers.

In the incident at noon on Wednesday (April 6), four foreign divers were reported missing while diving in the waters of Pulau Tokong Sanggol, about nine nautical miles from Tanjung Leman here.

However, Norwegian diving coach Kristine Grodem, 35, was first to be found safe, fully suited in diving gear by a tugboat en route from Indonesia to Thailand at 8.15 am on Thursday.

-- BERNAMA