KUALA LUMPUR: A decomposed body of a man believed to be of a 29-year-old Malaysian was found at Tatra mountains in southern Poland on Sunday.
The body that bore a Malaysian document of a 29-year-old inside his clothes was discovered by tourists not far from a marked trail leading to the Morskie Oko lake.
The local authority who are investigating the case has also notified the Malaysian Embassy in Warsaw through a faxed statement on Monday afternoon.
A Malaysian Embassy spokesperson said they were notified by the local authorities at about 3.30pm local time and the information has been conveyed to the Wisma Putra’s relevant unit for verification procedures.
“We have not obtained or seen the documents the local authorities are referring to, but what we have for now is a name and address in Malaysia.
“The embassy has requested for a copy of the identification documents they found on the deceased but we have yet to get it. Maybe, it’s too soon,” she added.
The spokesperson said the embassy has crossed checked the identity provided with the list of 140 Malaysians residing there, including students and Malaysians working there, but did not find a match.
“It could be a person who’s a tourist because the place where his remains were found is near a famous lake, Morskie Oko, which is a tourist attraction, especially among trekkers. However, it’s too early to confirm,” she said when contacted.
Tatra is a mountain range that forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland. It is the highest range of the Central Carpathians.
The spokesperson also said the embassy had not received any missing person reports in recent months from Malaysia.
“As you already know, not all Malaysians who come here register with us. It’s not compulsory, so we don’t know for sure at this moment. We will wait for Wisma Putra to locate the victim’s family first before we can reveal more details, such as his name, et cetera,” she said, adding that the remains are now with the local authorities and will only be surrendered after a postmortem at the end of the investigation.
The Dailymail yesterday quoted Barbara Bogdanowicz, the chief prosecutor in the mountain resort of Zakopane as saying the incident likely took place a few months ago during fall or winter.
“There’s nothing to suggest foul play. The man could have lost his way and frozen to death at night,” Bogdanowicz had said adding a post-mortem was planned for Tuesday.