A Thai fisherman had to swim for seven hours off the coast of Terengganu before being rescued by an oil rig worker on Saturday.
The victim, 32-year old Tok Saphon Samechit, was handed over to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), The Rakyat Post reports Kuala Terengganu Maritime Enforcement chief Captain G Xavier Thevadas as saying.
The victim was believed to have been relieving himself when he fell off his fishing vessel at 4am Saturday unnoticed by his shipmates. He managed to cling on to a barrel before seeing a light from an oil rig in the distance and decided to swim towards it.
Samechit screamed for help as he approached the rig and passed out due to fatigue. A little more than 12 hours after falling off his boat, a worker on the oil rig found him in a weak state.
Thevadas’s agency received the information concerning Samechit’s case at 6pm yesterday, more than 36 hours after the incident, and sent a recovery vessel for Samechit which arrived at the oil rig, located 72 nautical miles northeast of Kuala Terengganu, at 3.10am.
The victim was brought back to the MMEA jetty here and sent to the Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital for treatment.
“However, no injuries were reported,” he said.
He said the victim would be remanded for 14 days in an MMEA lockup in Kuala Terengganu for further investigation.
