Four European divers went missing off Malaysia's southeast coast on Wednesday and authorities have launched a search, the coastguard said. 

A British man, 46, a 14-year-old Dutchman, an 18-year-old Frenchwoman and a 35-year-old Norwegian woman disappeared after going diving near a small island, they said. 

A hunt involving boats from the coastguard, the police and the fisheries department was launched at 2:45 pm (0645 GMT), said senior coastguard official Nurul Hizam Zakaria in a statement. 

The island where they disappeared, Pulau Tokong Sanggol, is about 15 kilometres (nine miles), off the coast. 

The area 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. 

The tropical Southeast Asian nation's white-sand beaches and lush rainforests have long made it a major draw, but the tourism industry was hit hard by travel curbs during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The country's borders reopened to foreign tourists last week after a two-year closure.