Mersing district police chief Cyril Edward shows the pictures of British man Adrian Peter Chesters and French woman Alexia Alexandra Molina, who were found safe after drifting at sea for two and a half days.
(Picture: REUTERS)A British man who went missing during a diving trip in Malaysia has been found alive after drifting at sea for more than two days but authorities have called off the search for his son.
Adrian Peter Chesters, 46, vanished while diving on Wednesday near Pulau Tokong Sanggol, a small island off the country’s southern coast with his son Nathan, 14, and a French diver.
Fisherman rescued Mr Chesters and French diver, Alexia Molina, 18, after spotting them early on Saturday morning.
"Both individuals … are reported to be in stable condition," said Mersing district police chief Cyril Edward Nuing, who added they had been taken to hospital.
Rescuers were continuing to search for Mr Chester’s Dutch son but efforts were called off after his rescued father said he drowned after becoming too weak, authorities said.
Mr Chesters told police that he had died because he was too weak, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said.
A spokesperson said they notified Indonesian authorities to continue searching for the body. The search operation in Malaysia has been called off.
Mr Chesters, his son and Ms Molina were among a group of four who were diving in water of 49ft depth around 10 miles offshore from Mersing, in the southern state of Johor.
The fourth person, Kristine Grodem, a Norwegian diving instructor, was found safe by a tugboat on Thursday.
Ms Grodem said that she had been offering diving training to the group, who were aiming to obtain advanced diving licences.
She told officials the group surfaced about an hour into their dive on Wednesday but could not find their boat.
She was later separated from the others after being caught in strong currents.
Ms Grodem was rescued by a tug boat and then airlifted by a maritime aircraft, Johor maritime officials said.
Police said the safety boat’s skipper, a man in his 20s, was detained after a urine test identified methamphetamine, known as crystal meth.
"The instructor tried to keep all of them together but they got separated," Mersing police chief superintendent Cyril Edward explained, with the alarm raised about an hour after they failed to resurface from the dive.
