The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency has identified the six people who have gone missing after a catamaran carrying 28 Chinese tourists and three crew capsized off Sabah on Saturday.

Five of the missing are tourists and one is a crew, the MMEA said in a statement today.

The tourists are Sheng Jiang Jiang (male, 50 years), Dong Mei (female, age not given), Li Qun (gender and age not given), Luo Hong Yuan (male, 51) and Lu Gua Hang (male, 25) while the crew is Absoy Kasim (male, age not given).

Twenty tourists and two crew were rescued and three tourists were found dead after the catamaran capsized at about 10am on Saturday when it was hit by strong winds and high waves an hour after leaving the Tanjung Aru jetty in Kota Kinabalu for Pulau Mengalum, a tourist destination 56km northwest of Kota Kinabalu.

The MMEA also identified the third of the dead tourists as Xie Luo (male, 48). It had named the other two earlier as He Run Yuan (female, 46) and Zhang Xioa Kun (male, age not given).

In a statement issued in nKota Kinabalu today, MMEA said 20 of the survivors were Chinese tourists and the other two were the crew of the boat that capsized while heading from Kota Kinabalu to Pulau Mengalum with 28 tourists and three crew on board.

MMEA named the tourists who survived the mishap as Yan Yan Xin (male, 50 years old), Fan Li Xia (male, 40), Yan Si Yi (female, 17), Shen Hao Tian (male, 17), Yang Yao Ru (female, 24), Wang Xian Zhang (female, 48), Cao Dong Tue (female, age not given), Wei Yin (male, age not given), Lu Guo Hang (gender and age not given) and Li Feng (female, 39).

The other tourists who survived are Chen Xin Jian (female, 23), Her Hai Min (male, 22), He Zi Hao (female, 20), Guo Shun Ke (male, 48), Tan Ting (female, 31), Zeng Cui Can (male, 55), Liu Jin Can (male, 31), Liu Juan (female, 32), Liu Fei Tong (male, 32) and Chen Xi (female, 11).

The two crew who survived are from Sabah, and have been identified as Sharizal Salian, 25, the skipper, and Aman Abdul, a 38-year-old Filipino who holds an IMM13 immigration travel document.

The survivors among the tourists were brought in a fishing vessel to the Kota Kinabalu Marine Police jetty at 1.45am today.

The two crew members, who were rescued by a tourist boat skipper and a companion who joined the search and rescue (SAR) mission, arrived in Kota Kinabalu yesterday afternoon.

The boat is believed to have capsized about 10am last Saturday, after being hit by strong winds and huge waves an hour after it left the Tanjung Aru jetty for Pulau Mengalum, a tourist attraction about 56km northwest of Kota Kinabalu.

Six others, five of them tourists and one a crew, are still missing and the search and rescue mission is on to locate them.

The survivors were brought to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu this morning. The situation was calm, with the presence of several police personnel.

However, a small group of people, believed to be family members of some of the survivors, appeared to be irritated by the press photographers and gestured angrily for them to leave the hospital area.

Amelia Samanail, 21, of Pulau Gaya, said her husband, a crew member on the catamaran, left the house about 7pm on that fateful day to work.

"I'm leaving now" - were the last words uttered by Absol Kassim, 26, to her before boarding the catamaran.

"It is not even a month since he started work with the tour boat company. Before working on the boat, he was a vegetable seller," said the woman when met by Bernama at the Marine Police jetty.

Amelia said she was at the jetty with her parents and in-laws since 8am yesterday, waiting for news on her husband, who was still missing. The couple got married six months ago.

"I hope and pray that my husband is safe and he is found by the search and rescue team," she said.

- Bernama