SAR operation for seven missing victims continues

A search and rescue operation (SAR) for seven victims including three children who went missing after being swept away by a mud flood in a landslide in Sen Fu Estate, Tongod, Sandakan on Saturday continues today.

Sabah Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) operations centre said the operation which entered its third day would involve 17 Special Tactical Operation Rescue Malaysia (STORM) personnel, eight members of the Multi-Skill Team (MUST), 10 from the Sandakan Zone Water Rescue Team (PPDA) and another 10 from the Keningau Fire and Rescue Station.

"The Sandakan PPDA will carry out its SAR operation in Sungai Pinangah, Kinabatangan with police while Keningau firemen and members of STORM and MUST will conduct their operations at the original location of the house which was swept into Sungai Labou over one kilometre.

"The search for the victims is still concentrated on the piles of timber and mud," the operations centre said in a statement, here, today.

On April 1, Kinabatangan Fire and Rescue Station received a call from Pinangah Clinic in Tongod at 8.50am about a victim who was sent to the clinic by a member of the public.

The victim said his house had been swept away by a mud flood.

The operations centre said estate workers had earlier found a house in the estate missing and informed the Keningau Fire and Rescue Station at 10.30am on the same day.

In the incident, two of the 11 occupants of the house managed to save themselves and they were found in Pinangah and near Kampung Masaung, while seven others are still missing.

-- BERNAMA