Twenty of the victims, along with the bodies of three who died in the tragedy, arrived on a fishing boat escorted by a Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) vessel and a police marine boat.
However, it could not be ascertained if a crew member of the catamaran was among the 20 or the dead.
The two-tier fishing vessel that bore the Jalur Gemilang docked at the Kota Kinabalu police marine jetty at 1.45am.
Also seen on the jetty was Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim, Sabah Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Pang Yuk Ming, MMEA director-general Admiral Maritime Ahmad Puzi Ab Kahar, China’s Consul-General in Sabah Chen Peijie and Sabah Tourism Board chairman Joniston Bangkuai.
Police and a medical team rushed to receive the victims, who were given first aid at the jetty before being whisked off to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital here.
Most of the victims, who were still able to walk, were seen getting into two vans, while the rest were taken by ambulances, with the first leaving the jetty for the hospital at 2am.
Due to the security at the jetty’s entrance, members of the public, as well as local and international media, were only permitted to watch the activity from a neighbouring shopping mall and a development project about 15 to 20 metres away.
Meanwhile, Shahidan, when met at the police marine jetty entrance, said the victims would be taken to hospital while post-mortems would be conducted on the dead.
“We will make sure they (victims) receive the best attention and are given enough time to recuperate from their ordeal before police record their testimonies on the incident,” he said.
The boat ferrying three crew members and 28 tourists from China was believed to have capsized due to strong winds and big waves around 10am on Saturday (Jan 28), an hour after it left the Tanjung Aru jetty here for Pulau Mengalum, a tourist attraction 56km northwest of Kota Kinabalu.
About 3.30pm yesterday, police received information that two of the boat crew members had been rescued at Semarang, near Labuan, and were brought to the Kota Kinabalu police headquarters where their statements were recorded.
About 6pm, police received information that 20 of the victims in the capsized catamaran had been rescued by a fishing vessel, also at Semarang, and that three more were found dead.
Six others are still missing and a search and rescue (SAR) mission was ongoing to locate them.