CHUKAI: A survivor of the boat capsizing incident revealed that he used all his strength to hold onto a victim's body to prevent it from drifting away after their boat was struck by a barge in the Kuala Kemaman waters this morning.
"I used all my strength to hold onto the victim to ensure the body didn't slip away," said Rosnawi Harun, 50, one of the survivors.
The deceased were identified as Siti Zamimah Mohman Zobini, 29, and Shahril Ismail, 50, who were found at 7am and 1pm respectively, after the incident, which occurred around 6.30am.
The other two victims who are still missing are Yusoff Kassam, 66, and Aina Husna Mohamad Husani, 25.
The five survivors include Rosnawi; boat skipper Saipul Ridzuan Osman, 50, Mat Ali Alahan, 66, Haziah Harun, 63 and Ain Farhana Mohamad Husani, 30.
Rosnawi said he, along with his sister Haziah and two nieces, Ain and Aina, had joined a fishing trip and squid jigging.
He said during the incident, he was asleep, and the strong collision caused them to be thrown into the sea.
"In the chaos, the five of us clung to two fish barrels and managed to pull Siti Zamimah, who was still alive at that time," he said.
He added that he could only ask everyone to stay calm and hold tightly onto the barrels to avoid drifting away.
"I exerted all my strength to hold onto Siti Zamimah with one hand, while using the other hand to hold onto the fish barrel and continuously recited prayers for her, but she passed away half an hour later," he said.
According to him, he was only thinking of survival given the large waves and their own exhaustion.
"We all kept praying non-stop, and after two hours of fighting for our lives, our prayers were answered when a fishing boat happened to pass by and managed to rescue us," he said, adding that he had planned the fishing trip three months ago.
Earlier, a second body from a fishing boat that capsized near Kuala Kemaman early today was found in the afternoon.
The victim, identified as Shahril Ismail, 50, was found floating in the water around 1pm.
Kemaman police chief Superintendent Hanyan Ramlan said Shahril's body was retrieved and taken to a search-and rescue operation control post at 2.45pm.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency deployed an aircraft in the search-and-rescue operation to locate the three anglers in waters off Kuala Kemaman.
Kemaman Maritime Zone director Commander Ariffin Ghazali said the fishing boat carrying nine people, including the skipper, capsized after being struck by the barge.