A 34-year-old British charity worker, Gareth Huntley has gone missing in Tioman Island since last week.
A professional search team has been deployed on the island of Tioman, including ten paramilitary commandos, five police officers, three guides with search dogs, a fire and rescue team, two boats and a helicopter to locate the missing Londoner.
According to the Daily Mail, Mr Huntley left the headquarters of the Juara Turtle Project on May 27 to hike through the jungle and supposedly informed the staff that he would be back that afternoon but failed to return.
His mother, Janet Southwell has been in touch with Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron to alert the Malaysian government and authorities on the disappearance of her son. She told Sky News that police response in Malaysia has been “incredibly slow” and that “the locals were, apparently, brilliant. They were out, very quickly, looking, searching as best they could, through terrain which they obviously know very well, but from what we understand the police response was incredibly slow”.
Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond who met with Malaysian defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein – currently also investigating the disappearance of flight MH370 – said: “I raised the ongoing search on Tioman Island with the Malaysian government to check they have all the resources they require. They assure me that they do and that they are doing everything they can to find Gareth. We will continue to keep in regular contact with the Malaysian civil authorities leading the search.”
