A Malaysian fishing boat has rescued an Indonesian woman who was found clinging to a log four to five days after being dragged out to sea in the wake of last month's devastating tsunami.
The woman, who gave her age as 24, from the shattered province of Aceh, was brought into the west Malaysian island of Penang on board the boat yesterday, a doctor and a Penang politician said, saying they had met the woman on her arrival.
"It's remarkable," Dr Azmi Shapie, director of Penang's state health department, said by phone from Penang.
He said the woman gave her name only as Malawati.
The woman was rushed to a Penang hospital and details of her survival were still sketchy, but both Dr Shapie and a local ruling-party official said they had spoken to her and quoted her as saying she had clung to a palm tree.
"She said she ate the food from the tree," the party official, Mr Azhar Ibrahim, said, describing the log as a rumbia tree, or sago palm. The fruit of the sago palm is used to make a type of flour, an ingredient in Indonesian sweets.
"She was waving at the boat. One of the crew saw her and they fished her out. She was okay, except she couldn't stand very well (when she arrived at port) ... She had fish bites all over her legs."
The woman was wearing only rags before being picked up by the crew, who gave her clothes, he said. "She said she had felt cold, but her will to survive was very strong."
Neither Dr Shapie nor Mr Ibrahim could say where the woman was found, or how far out to sea she was. The boat was on its way back from the Indian Ocean's southern tuna fields when it found her, Mr Ibrahim said.