Spanish couple given up for dead found alive off Borneo

Spanish nationals David Hernandez Gasulla and Martha Miguel, who went missing on May 2nd when their boat disappeared, have been found alive by a Vietnamese fishing boat. 

The news was confirmed by director general of Malaysia’s maritime agency, Datuk Ahmad Puzi Kahar, speaking to local newspaper The Star. 

Family members confirmed to Spanish media on Thursday that the couple had been found and were “doing well”. 

The couple went missing, along with a Chinese citizen and a Malaysian national off the coast of Sabah state on Borneo island during bad weather last week.   

The small boat was “believed” to have sunk and divers had been deployed in the area where the boat engine was found. 

Mohamad Zubil Mat Som, a senior coast guard official, told news agency AFP that Malaysian fishermen over the weekend recovered an engine entangled in their net that was from the missing vessel.

Officials had not given any indication if kidnapping could have been involved.

Islamic militants from the Abu Sayyaf group have been blamed for repeated kidnappings off Sabah.

Among the recent incidents, ten Indonesian sailors were snatched from their tugboat in late March. They were released on May 1st.