Death toll in Malaysia migrant shipwreck rises to at least 21

Langkawi: Authorities in Malaysia and Thailand have recovered at least 21 bodies as they search for survivors after a boat carrying undocumented migrants capsized, police and maritime officials said on Monday.

Officials said the boat was carrying about 70 migrants, many believed to be from Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya community trying to reach Malaysia, when it capsized near Thailand's Tarutao island four days ago.

They were believed to have been part of a larger group of some 300 people who were split between at least two boats, police said.

Tarutao is just north of Malaysia's island resort of Langkawi, where officials said search-and-rescue operations were being concentrated.

Romli Mustafa, director of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) in the northern states of Kedah and Perlis, said rescuers found five more bodies on Monday, without disclosing their nationality or ethnicity.

Seven recovered at the weekend were all identified as Rohingya.

"Our search counterpart, the Thai authorities, has so far found... a total of nine bodies. No survivors were found in Thai waters," Romli told reporters on Monday evening.

Search-and-rescue operations were expected to last for seven days, he said, depending on further discoveries and the weather.

Romli said earlier on Monday at least 12 vessels were searching for survivors in an area of around 250 square nautical miles, roughly the same size as the city-state of Singapore.

"We will continue to expand the search grid," he said.

MMEA patrol vessels set out off Langkawi early on Monday in choppy seas under blazing tropical sun, according to AFP journalists on one of the vessels.

With spray lashing the decks, the harsh conditions forced the boat to seek temporary shelter at a nearby resort island before resuming the search.