A missing OAP fisherman has been rescued after clinging to a plastic jerrycan in the open sea for more than 30 hours.

The Malaysian fisherman – named as Morris Dulin, 69 – was ditched in the South China Sea when his boat capsized.

All he had to cling to was a plastic jerrycan that somehow kept him afloat for nearly a day and a half before he was found by the Royal Malaysian Navy.

He was rescued 5.5 nautical miles (10.2 kilometres) from where his boat sank off the Malaysian island of Sepanggar.

Images from the Malaysian Navy show Dulin receiving treatment after his ordeal.

Newsflash obtained a statement from the Royal Malaysian Navy dated 26th January saying they and the police “carried out a search for a fisherman who was feared missing”.

They said they were assisted in their search by a Scaneagle M601-7 UAS drone.

They explained: “This drone was flown for aerial monitoring to help locate the missing victim.”

The Navy said that three people had gone into the water when the ship sank but two of the survivors had managed to swim to shore to raise the alarm.

They said that they eventually “succeeded in finding the victim at around 1pm this afternoon at a location 5 nautical miles (bn) west of Tanjung Gaya.”

They said that the “victim was found clinging to a white jerrycan to help him float” and that he was found in a weakened condition.

Dulin was given an initial health check on the rescue vessel, the KD Sundang, before being handed over to the Kota Kinabalu Regional Military Hospital for further treatment.