A restaurant owner and a customer were abducted by four gunmen who raided a seaside restuarant in Sandakan at about 7.40pm today.

Confirming the incident, Inspector-General of Police Abdul Khalid Abu Bakar said police are investigating the matter.

"Police are investigating but do not rule out the possibility of militants involved," he told Malaysiakini.

Authorities have launched a hunt and are cordoning off Malaysian waters.

"The four gunmen entered Ocean King Restaurant carrying two automatic rifles and a pistol," Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said in a statement.

He told reporters in Kuala Lumpur later the kidnappers fled in two boats towards The Phillippines and no injuries were reported.

"So far, both boats are moving towards Philippine waters but we are confident they are still in Malaysian waters," he said.

Malaysia has requested the assistance of the Philippine coast guard.

No ransom demands have been made, he said.

Chung Yan Tsim said the raid lasted less than a minute, The Star Online reported.

"There wore no masks and there was no shooting," Chung said.

The restaurant manager taken in the raid is Chung's sister-in-law.

Last July, gunmen killed police and kidnapped a woman from the resort island of Mabul, also in eastern Sabah.

Two women including a Chinese national were taken from a resort in Semporna in the same region in April 2014.

In 2013, a tourist was killed while his wife kidnapped from a Sipadan resort near Sandakan.

More than 20 people including tourists were taken hostage by Abu Sayyaf at a resort in Sipadan in the year 2000.

So much for Esscom

In immediate response, DAP Sabah vice chairperson Chan Foong Hin (photo) said the recurrence of a kidnappings shows that the East Sabah Security Command (Esscom) is ineffective.

Esscom got a budget hike from RM75 million last year to RM600 million in 2015, but the large sum of public funds spent have failed to ensure public safety, he said.

"Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Tawau residents have witness these armed forces arresting illegal immigrants on the street. Why don't they bother security of our border, but keep harassing people (illegal immigrants on the mainland)?"

He questioned where the migrants arrested are placed given that immigration detention centres are full.

"Are they all in the detention camps, and sent back to The Philippines later? or they are released after some of the enforcement officers are bribed?"

He urged the enforcement officers to spend their energy to safeguard the border, rather than harassing ordinary people in the town.

Additional reporting by Koh Jun Lin