Malaysian police have mounted efforts to locate a South African diplomat who has been missing for six days, a top police official said Saturday.

Deputy high commissioner Nicky Scholtz, 54, was last seen Sunday evening in his hotel room in Kuala Lumpur where he was attending the Tokyo International Conference on African Development.

Scholtz arrived in Malaysia only last month. Inquiries by embassy and hotel staff have failed to locate him.

Mohamad Sedek Mohamad Ali (photo right), deputy inspector-general of police said the South African mission in Kuala Lumpur filed a missing person report on Wednesday.

Police said it was the first time a diplomat had gone missing in Malaysia.

"It is something of concern to us because he is a diplomat and he has gone missing in Kuala Lumpur," Mohamad Sedek told reporters.

Missing person case

"So far, we do not know the reasons why he is missing. We are still investigating. We will circulate his photographs," he added.

Asked if there was any indication that Scholtz could have been kidnapped, Mohamad Sedek said: "This is not a kidnapping case. It is still a missing person case."

At a separate media conference, South African high commissioner Abraham Sokhaya Nkomo thanked the Malaysian police for their efforts.

"Perhaps it is not very useful for us to go into very long details. There are certain constraints," he said when asked if the missing diplomat had travelled to Malaysia previously and if he was carrying his travel document.

Hadi Ho Abdullah, a district police chief who is heading the search, said police were investigating "all angles" when asked if they believed Scholtz was still in Malaysia. - AFP