KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Twenty-five, mostly Chinese tourists, were rescued Sunday after spending more than a day drifting in Malaysian waters after their boat sank, officials said.

Six of the 31 people on board were still missing Sunday evening, Shahidan Kassim, a minister in the prime minister's department, told reporters in Sabah state.

The boat's captain and a crew member were spotted by a military plane and rescued, Shahidan said. Fishermen later rescued a group of 10 people and another group of eight, while a tugboat found a group of five, he said.

Shahidan said search efforts will be intensified, including using surveillance planes that see in the dark.

Twenty-three of the recovered are Chinese as are five of the six still missing, Sabah Police Commissioner Ramli Din tweeted.

An official with the Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency said the rescuers were being hindered by high winds and choppy waters. The official declined to be named because he isn't authorized to speak to the media.

The search area is about 400 square nautical miles (nearly 1,400 square kilometers) of the South China Sea.

The captain and a crew member were found between the island of Pulau Tiga and an offshore oil drilling platform, Malaysia's The Star Online reported. The boat had left Kota Kinabalu in Sabah state on Saturday morning on its way to Pulau Mengalum, an island about 60 kilometers (38 miles) west.

Arwin Musbir, the captain of another boat that left for Pulau Mengalum at the same time, told the New Straits Times newspaper that he was following the missing boat but lost sight of it shortly after they left. He said he realized it had gone missing only after he arrived at the island.

Many Chinese travel abroad during the Lunar New Year holiday, which began Saturday.

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Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Beijing contributed to this report.</s>KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Chinese state media say a boat carrying 31 people, including more than 20 Chinese tourists, is missing after sailing out from an eastern Malaysian city.

The official Xinhua News Agency cited the Chinese Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian state of Sabah as saying Sunday that the boat lost contact after sailing out on Saturday.

It left Kota Kinabalu in the morning, bound for Pulau Mengalum, an island west of the city.

Xinhua reports that the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said it deployed search and rescue ships and helicopters to the site after receiving a call Saturday night about the boat’s disappearance.

Malaysian newspaper The Star says there are 28 Chinese tourists on the boat.</s>A boat carrying 31 people, including around 20 Chinese tourists, is missing after sailing out from an eastern Malaysian city, Chinese state media said Sunday. The Chinese Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian state of Sabah said the boat lost contact after leaving Kota Kinabalu on Saturday morning, according to the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Start the conversation, or Read more at SFGate.</s>Boat with 31 mostly Chinese tourists missing in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A boat carrying 31 people, including around 20 Chinese tourists, is missing after sailing out from an eastern Malaysian city, Chinese state media said Sunday.

The Chinese Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian state of Sabah said the boat lost contact after leaving Kota Kinabalu on Saturday morning, according to the official Xinhua News Agency said. It was bound for Pulau Mengalum, an island about 60 kilometers (38 miles) west of the city.

The report cited the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency as saying there were 28 Chinese tourists on board. But the Chinese Consulate could only confirm the passport details of 18 Chinese citizens, Xinhua said.

Malaysia deployed search and rescue ships and helicopters after receiving a call Saturday night about the boat's disappearance, Xinhua reported.</s>A boat carrying 31 people, including 28 Chinese tourists, has gone missing in the waters off Borneo, an official from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency told AFP Sunday.

"The owner of the boat reported it missing on Saturday evening and we have begun a search and rescue mission," a spokesman from the agency said.

In addition to the tourists, a skipper and two crew members were also on board when the boat sailed out on Saturday morning, the spokesman said, adding that weather conditions were bad on the day.

They were on their way to an island some 60 kilometres (37 miles) west of Kota Kinabalu, the capital of eastern Sabah state.</s>Malaysian rescue ships and helicopters were encountering strong winds and choppy waters Sunday while searching for 31 people, including around 20 Chinese tourists, whose boat went missing near an eastern Malaysian city, media reported.

The Chinese Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian state of Sabah said the boat lost contact after leaving Kota Kinabalu on Saturday morning, according to the official Xinhua News Agency said. It was bound for Pulau Mengalum, an island about 38 miles west of the city.

The report cited the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency as saying there were 28 Chinese tourists on board. But the Chinese Consulate could only confirm the passport details of 18 Chinese citizens, Xinhua said.

Malaysia deployed search and rescue ships and helicopters after receiving a call Saturday night about the boat's disappearance, Xinhua reported. Calls to the Chinese Consulate rang unanswered Sunday.

Authorities are searching a section of the South China Sea of about 400 square nautical miles, according to The Star daily in Malaysia. They are contending with strong winds and choppy waters.

Arwin Musbir, the captain of another boat that left for Pulau Mengalum at the same time, told the New Straits Times newspaper that he was following the missing boat but lost sight of it shortly after they left. He said he realized it had gone missing only after he arrived at the island.</s>A massive search operation is underway after a boat carrying 31 people – mostly Chinese tourists – went missing off the coast of Sabah in Malaysian. The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said that it had received a distress call on the disappearance of the vessel late on Saturday night (28 January).

Authorities said that 28 of the people on board the vessel are Chinese tourists, apart from the captain and two crewmen. The boat was en route to the popular tourist island of Pulau Mengalum from Kota Kinabalu in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah. When the boat failed to arrive at the island following its 60-km voyage, authorities launched the search operation.

"The search area covers 400 nautical square miles and involves waters between Kota Kinabalu and Pulau Mengalum. The Royal Malaysian Air Force will be notified to carry out aerial surveillance," said Lieutenant Awil Kamsari, spokesperson for MMEA in Sabah. Malaysian naval vessels have also been pressed into action.

The Consulate General of China in Kota Kinabalu confirmed the news of the missing vessel and said it is monitoring the situation closely. Although it is not clear what could have caused the boat to have lost contact with agencies, local reports suggest that weather conditions in the there were not good.</s>KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – Authorities say the captain and a crew member from a missing Malaysian boat made it to safety today but others among the 31 people on board, including 28 Chinese tourists, may be drifting in the water waiting to be rescued.

Chinese state television said the crew reported helping passengers put on life jackets as the boat was sinking, then tried to look for help.

The Chinese Consulate General in Kota Kinabalu in the Malaysian state of Sabah said the boat lost contact after leaving Kota Kinabalu on Saturday morning, according to the official Xinhua News Agency said. It was bound for Pulau Mengalum, an island about 60 kilometers (38 miles) west of the city.

The report cited the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency as saying there were 28 Chinese tourists on board. But the Chinese Consulate could only confirm the passport details of 18 Chinese citizens, Xinhua said.

Malaysia deployed search and rescue ships and helicopters after receiving a call Saturday night about the boat’s disappearance, Xinhua reported.</s>Catamaran with 31 people on board, including 28 Chinese tourists goes missing

MMEA launched a search and rescue (SAR) mission to look for a catamaran with 31 people on board which has gone missing. — Picture by Dawn ChinKOTA KINABALU, Jan 29 ― A catamaran with 31 people on board including 28 tourists from China is believed to have gone missing while en route from the Tanjung Aru jetty here to Pulau Mangalum yesterday.

The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said the catamaran left the jetty at 9am.

“A police report was lodged at 9.50pm,” MMEA said in a statement here today.

MMEA said a search and rescue (SAR) mission using its patrol boat Kilat 36 was mounted at 10.15pm yesterday and three more assets ― patrol boats Kilat 36 and Kilat 39, ship KM Berani ― joined the SAR operation today.

Other agencies involved in the SAR mission included the Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN), which despatched its ship KD Ganas, and the Marine Operations Force (MOF), the agency said. ― Bernama</s>Kuala Lumpur, Jan 29 (IANS) Twenty-five Chinese tourists were rescued on Sunday after their boat carrying 31 on board capsized off Malaysia’s Sabah state, the media reported.

The boat went missing on Saturday after sailing from Kota Kinabalu, the state capital, to Pulau Mengalum, a popular tourist island, Xinhua news agency reported.

The news was confirmed by China’s Consulate General’s Office based in Kota Kinabalu.

The survivors were rescued by several vessels and will be sent to the nearby Labuan island for medical checks.

The skipper and one of the crew member was rescued earlier in the day.

Search efforts to locate the remaining four continues and authorities have said they would deploy aerial assets to continue searching at night.
A boat with 31 people on board, including more than 20 Chinese tourists, goes missing after sailing from the eastern Malaysian port of Kota Kinabalu to visit the island of Pulau Mengalum.