Young foreigner drowns after 600m swim to evade arrest

0

Caption: The search and rescue personnel covering the victim’s body after it was found yesterday.

KOTA KINABALU: A young foreigner drowned after swimming some 600 metres into the sea at Sepanggar Bay in a futile attempt to evade arrest by law enforcement officers on Tuesday.

The body of Anthony Muhribin, 20, was found by villagers around 2.320pm yesterday.

It is said that Anthony, together with three other foreigners who did not possess any valid travel documents, were travelling in a Proton Saga car on their way home to Kampung Sepanggar when they were stopped by police in a patrol car around 6.30pm on May 26.

Two of the suspects were detained at the scene while the victim and the fourth suspect fled.

The victim jumped into the sea and swamp about 600 meters before he faced difficulties in the water.

City Police chief ACP M. Chandra said the victim was found by villagers who were also involved in the search and rescue operation since Tuesday evening.

“The victim’s body was found about 100 metres from where he was believed last seen,” Chandra said.

“The body has been taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for a post-mortem and police have classified the case as sudden dead,” he said yesterday.

Chandra said the two-day search operations involved 40 personnel from the Fire and Rescue Department, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), Marine police and villagers.