Marine engineering student drowns after falling off tugboat

Muhammad Afizuddin Aidzuhan's body was recovered around 12.45pm Tuesday (July 30).

ALOR GAJAH (Bernama): The body of a 20-year-old male student who was believed to have fallen off a tugboat into the sea off Kuala Linggi here while on industrial training has been found.

Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) operations deputy director (Melaka and Negri Sembilan) maritime commander Azman Samsudin said Muhammad Afizuddin Aidzuhan's body was recovered around 12.45pm Tuesday (July 30).

"Local fishermen retrieved the body about 3.9 nautical miles from the location of the tugboat at the time of the incident, ” he said in a statement.

The victim, from Petaling Jaya, Selangor was a final year Marine Engineering diploma student at Ranaco Vocational Training Institute in Terengganu and had been training with a port operation company in Kuala Linggi for six months.

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"Other crew members of the tugboat only realised Muhammad Afizuddin's disappearance around 1pm and reported the incident to MMEA, which activated a search and rescue operation around 5pm, ” Azman said.

Aside from MMEA, he said the operation involved the police and personnel from the Fire and Rescue Department and Civil Defence Force with the assistance of the local fishing community. - Bernama