THE mother of a French diver missing off Malaysia said today she is “hoping for the best” as search teams hunted for the teenager and two other Europeans for a third day.

The trio and their instructor disappeared on Wednesday after going diving off a southern island. 

The Norwegian instructor, 35-year-old Kristine Grodem, was rescued alive yesterday after drifting for miles, and was admitted to hospital in a stable condition.

Officials have expressed hope the others will be found alive, as they had surfaced from a dive before they went missing and have substantial experience.

Esther Molina, the mother of French 18-year-old Alexia Alexandra Molina, also struck an optimistic note.

“We hear from experienced divers that the situation is positive, they’re above water, hopefully they’re together still,” she told AFP from Mersing, the base for search operations.

“We are hoping for the best. She’s a strong girl, she’ll kick ass.”

The 57-year-old, who lives in Malaysia with her family, added authorities had been “efficient, we’ve been kept updated about the status of the search”.

The other two missing divers are British man Adrian Peter Chesters, 46, and his 14-year-old son Nathan Renze Chesters, who is a Dutch citizen.

The search, which includes 10 boats, three helicopters and dozens of officials, resumed in the early hours, said senior police official Cyril Edward Nuing.

“Until now, we have not received new sightings of the three missing divers,” he told a press conference. 

Nuing added he still had “strong hope that the three divers can be recovered alive” given their experience.

Popular with tourists

However, by late afternoon, there was still no news of the missing trio.

On one boat involved in the search, coastguard officers used binoculars to scan islands, beaches and the waters of the South China Sea, according to AFP journalists accompanying them.

Grodem had been instructing the divers close to a small island, Tokong Sanggol, about 15km off the coast, when the accident happened.

After a dive lasting about 40 minutes, they surfaced but could not find their boat. They drifted together in strong currents, but ended up getting separated. 

The captain of the boat who took them to the dive site has been arrested after testing positive for drugs.

Resort and boat operators in the area have been asked to halt all diving and snorkelling, local official Mohammed Shakib Ali said.

“This move is to give space and time to the currently ongoing search and rescue effort for the remaining three divers,” he said. 

The area where they disappeared is popular with foreign and domestic visitors – there are resorts dotted along the coast and on nearby islands.

Diving accidents, while rare, do occasionally take place in Malaysia. 

In 2013, a British tourist died when she was struck by a passing boat’s propeller while diving off resort islands in the South China Sea. 

Malaysia’s borders reopened to foreign tourists on April 1 after a two-year closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. – AFP, April 8, 2022.