Chinese national abducted from Borneo taken to Philippines

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A Chinese national working at a fish farm in eastern Malaysia was kidnapped by gunmen early Tuesday and believed taken to southern Philippines, police said, sparking fresh concerns of security threats on Borneo island.

The incident comes a month after suspected Filipino insurgents seized a Chinese tourist and a hotel worker from a dive resort in eastern Sabah state.

Mohamad Bakri Zinin, Malaysia's national deputy police chief, said five men clad in military fatigues entered the fish farm belonging to Wonderful Terrace Sendirian Berhad several hours before dawn and kidnapped its manager, Yang Zailin, 34.

He said two of the men were believed armed with M16 rifles. Police pursued the kidnappers who fled on boat and they exchanged shots at a nearby island, he said.

"However, they managed to escape and were headed to a neighboring country," Bakri said in a statement.

A Philippine security official, who declined to be named as he isn't authorized to speak to the media, said Filipino authorities have been notified of the kidnapping. The official said the victim was believed to have been taken to Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

China's Xinhua News Agency said Beijing has urged Malaysia to speed up efforts to rescue the man.

The spate of kidnappings underline persistent security threats in Sabah, a popular tourist destination and dive spot that is a short boat ride from the southern Philippines, where Muslim militants and kidnap gangs have long found safe haven.

The move will likely add further to negative sentiment in China over the safety of its citizens in Malaysia, which is still hunting for a jetliner that went missing March 8 with 239 people, mostly Chinese citizens, on board.

Last November, suspected Filipino militants shot and killed a Taiwanese tourist and kidnapped his wife from a resort in Sabah. The women was released a month later in the southern Philippines. Authorities didn't say whether a ransom was paid.

Militants in the southern Philippines are holding more than a dozen captives, including two European bird watchers who were seized from Tawi-Tawi, the southernmost Philippines province closest to Sabah, in 2012.