An emergency team led by a deputy chief of the China National Tourism Administration has been set up, reported Xinhua news agency today.

The agency quoted a statement from the tourism authority saying that it’s checking the information of the tourists, and the staff in its Singapore office are preparing to search the area where the boat went missing.

Malaysian marine police, the navy and the air force are searching 400 square miles of sea off Sabah even now for the missing catamaran.

The boat left from Tanjung Aru in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, for Pulau Mengalum at 9am yesterday. It was reported missing when it didn’t arrive even 12 hours later.

It is not clear what caused the disappearance of the boat but a captain of another boat that left port at about the same time says he noticed the white catamaran was missing halfway to their destination of Pulau Mengalum.

NST online has reported that it has learnt the boat has no means of communication or radar.