Illegal blast-fishing is suspected of having caused the deaths of three scuba divers in Malaysian Borneo yesterday (5 July).

Fishing-boat crew were being hunted by police on suspicion of murder following the deaths of two visiting Chinese divers and a local diving instructor near the small island of Kalapuan off Semporna, according to Malaysian press.

The instructor was identified as 30-year-old Zainal Abdu and the tourists as Zhao Zhong and Xu Yingjie, both 26. The police have described the suspects as bajau, or “sea-gypsies”. There is a bajau community on Kalapuan.

A 24-year-old boatman and a 23-year-old guide who had stayed aboard the dive-boat told police that they had dropped off the divers at around 2.30pm, after briefing them to head towards a nearby jetty.