Two South Korean tourists drowned at a seaside resort in Sarawak while trying to save a woman in their tour group, a report said today.

The two, identified as Kim Sung Hyun, 20 and Jung Yo Han, 24, were among a group of 24 South Koreans who had just arrived at a seaside resort in Santubong , when the accident occurred, the New Straits Times reported.

The paper quoted police as saying the tourists had ignored a red flag indicating dangerous sea conditions.

District deputy police chief Mun Kok Keong told the paper the two men had drowned while trying to save a woman who had got into difficulties.

Woman survives ordeal

Rescue officials who arrived shortly after the incident said the woman, who they declined to identify, survived the ordeal.

"I dived down about three metres (10 feet) at the spot where she was last seen and there she was," rescue squad member Abdul Razak Ibrahim told the paper.

"She was unconscious and must have swallowed a lot of sea water. I went back (up) to the boat to look for the other two but the sea conditions were dangerous," he added.

Mun told the paper that the woman was in critical condition in a local hospital while the bodies of the two men have been sent to the state hospital for a post mortem examination.