Indonesian survivors found after days afload

Agencies, Port Blair/Kuala Lumpur

Four men and a woman from Indonesia were found separately after days of drifting at sea.

The Associated Press quoted the Indian coast guard as saying on Monday that four fishermen were found alive on a boat that was pushed north to a remote Indian Ocean island by the tsunami of Dec. 26. The men were rescued by the coast guard on Saturday off Campbell Bay, said Anil K. Pokhariyal, commander of the coast guard ship. They were brought to a jetty at Port Blair, capital of the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Pokhariyal said the men were already stranded before the tsunami hit, as their engine had broken down. He said they had been adrift for nine days before they were spotted by a reconnaissance helicopter on New Year's Day.

"They were on a wooden dinghy," he said. "They waved to us and gestured in sign language, asking for food." He said the men had tied a cloth to a post in an effort to make a sail.

One of the men, who identified himself as Jasmi, said he had learned a few words in Hindi from his nieces who lived in New Delhi, India's capital. He tried to explain, in broken Hindi and gestures, that the boat had broken down and they had no fish or water, and that they had come from Sabang.

From Kuala Lumpur, Agence France Presse quoted officials on Monday saying that a Malaysian fishing boat rescued an Acehnese woman who had been drifting in the Indian Ocean for five days.

The woman in her 20s was found floating alive Friday not far from the shores of Aceh, a Malaysian International Tuna Port official told Bernama news agency.

"From initial information received from the crew, the woman, with leg injuries, is safe," he said.

He added the woman would be hospitalized for treatment once the ship arrived back at the port on the north Malaysian island of Penang later Monday.