Fishermen rescued after boat capsizes in Batang Paloh

TANJUNG MANIS: A local skipper and his three Indonesian fishing crew members were saved by an auxiliary firefighter after their boat capsized near the Batang Paloh bridge construction site today.

The quick-thinking auxiliary firefighter, Mohammad Hasbullah Juli, happened to be in the vicinity when the incident happened at around 11 am.

It was reported that the fishing boat was stuck in a shallow sandbar area and the strong current caused it to tilt and sink.

Despite the perilous situation, all fishing crew members, aged between 24 and 62, managed to cling onto their boat until Hasbullah arrived at the scene.

The tilted fishing boat in Batang Paloh.

He rescued the crew members and brought them to safety at the Batang Paloh bridge construction site.

Firemen from Tanjung Manis, who responded to a distress call around 11.37 am, did not conduct any operation and only took the crew members’ information.

Amid the chaos of the rescue, the crew members were unable to retrieve their identification documents from the overturned boat.