Tanjung Dawai boat capsize: Skipper fails to save victims via resuscitation

"We tried to resuscitate them but two of the three victims we fished out of the water have died."

Jamaluddin Hasshim, 66, was the first boat skipper who provided assistance, after a passenger boat from Tanjung Dawai to Pantai Merdeka, with 12 passengers and a tekong onboard, overturned.

In the incident at 10.38am, two drowned while 11 others were rescued after the boat they were on overturned after hitting the anchor chain of a trawler.

"I was on the way to pick up passengers at Tanjung Dawai from Pantai Merdeka and when I reach the area out to sea I found the passenger boat had keeled over.

"I rushed to the spot and upon arrival, friends from the other boats helped to pull out three victims from the sea and onto my boat," he told reporters when met at the Tanjung Dawai Jetty here Sunday.

READ: Tanjung Dawai boat capsize: Drown victims identified

He said his four friends and himself tried to resuscitate the two victims but they had already died while another was still breathing.

"After failing to revive them, we headed back to Pantai Merdeka and handed the three victims to the Fire and Rescue Department," he said.

Jamaluddin said this was the first time such an incident had occurred in the more than 35 years he was a passenger boat operator.

"This is the first time I saw such an incident with my own eyes and I am still shocked. The trawler boat should not have repaired its anchor connections in the middle of the passenger boat path due to the high risk of the propeller and engines snagging on the chain," he said. -- Bernama