KOTA KINABALU: Police have detained three men and one woman in connection with the abduction of a Chinese tourist and a Filipino worker from the Singamata Reef resort in Semporna on Wednesday night, said Sabah Police Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib.
He said the four were picked up yesterday evening.
The Chinese tourist, Gao Huayuan, 29, and Filipina resort employee Marcy Darawan @ Mimi, 40, are now believed to be held in the Philippines.
Police believe the seven gunmen who abducted the duo belong to a “kidnap for ransom” group from the southern Philippines, and have taken their two victims across international waters.
Meanwhile, AFP reports that Philippine soldiers have been deployed to a remote southern island where suspected militants are believed to have taken Gao and Marcy.
Lt-Col Ramon Zagala said seven gunmen aboard a white speedboat were believed to have taken the women from a diving resort in Malaysia’s Sabah state across the maritime border to the remote Tawi-Tawi islands in the southern Philippines.
“What is important is to… block them (from fleeing) and find them,” Zagala said, adding that an undisclosed number of naval forces, including marines, had been sent to one of the islands.
Zagala said the hostages were believed to have been taken to Simunul, a majority-Muslim town of about 35,000 people living on two tiny islands more than 1,000km from Manila.