Heavily armed gunmen have taken 20 hostages abducted from a Malaysian resort on Sunday to remote islands in the Philippines, authorities said yesterday.
The kidnappers evaded a massive search over the Sulu Sea by Malaysian and Philippine ships and aircraft for the second day. Malaysian officials said they had received no demands and did not know exactly where the hostages were being held.
But they believed the kidnappers had fled with their victims to the southern Philippines, where some islands are less than an hour from Sipadan by speedboat.
A source close to Muslim guerrillas in the Philippines said the hostages were being held somewhere in the Tawi-Tawi group of islands. The source confirmed the kidnapping was carried out by Abu Sayyaf guerrillas fighting for an independent state in the southern part of the mostly Catholic Philippines.