The Royal Malaysian Navy has located its gunboat CB204 which was reported missing off the coast of Sabah since early this morning.

Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar in his latest string of  Twitter postings said that the vessel was located at 6.49pm and the crew of seven was safe and sound, except that they were "starving".

Earlier, he said one of the search and rescue vessels received a distress call around 3pm from it, reporting engine malfunction and spoilt steering gear.

He said search and rescue ships KD Ganas and KD Lekiu are on their way to the location.

Abdul Aziz has yet to explain why the boat could not be contacted for more than 13 hours since it went missing.   

He had earlier this morning confirmed that the gunboat CB204 with seven crew members was lost during rough seas.

At about 12.35pm, he said that a ship had been sent to investigate the sighting of a boat floating off near Pulau Mengalum. 

Abdul Aziz said two planes from the Royal Malaysian Air Force joined the search and rescue operations at 9.30am and 10.30am, along with six ships already out at sea.

The rough weather which included low rain clouds, had not allowed planes to be launched earlier.

"The Royal Malaysian Air Force and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency are also assisting in the SAR operation," Abdul Aziz had tweeted. 

 
The navy chief said the lost gunboat carried the pennant number CB204 and was led by Lieutenant Azri Bakar.
 
"Pray that they are safe," he said in another posting.
 
According to Astro Awani , the boat's last known position was at 1.05pm yesterday at 20 nautical miles northeast of Pulau Mengalum.
 
CB204 was escorted by KD Paus which had informed headquarters that it would be turning back to the Kota Kinabalu navy base due to bad weather.
 
However, KD Paus lost contact with CB204 at 1.05pm, prompting the search operation.
 
Meanwhile, Bernama this morning reported that RMN said the combat vessel lost contact with an escort vessel as it was heading to an RMN station on Layang-Layang atoll off Sabah.