KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 (AP) -- Malaysian navy and rescue teams searched for a third day Friday for 13 crew from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off the coast of Borneo, a maritime official said.

The Qiong Quong Hai went down before dawn Wednesday about 150 kilometers (80 nautical miles) from the coastal town of Miri on Borneo Island, said Richard Bajan, the duty officer who received a distress call about the accident at the Kuching Maritime Rescue Sub-Center in Sarawak state, Borneo.

The crew boarded two lifeboats and headed for Miri but haven't been seen since, Bajan said.

"The men were drifting in lifeboats. If the currents have pulled them into the open sea they may be difficult to find," he said.

Bajan did not know the nationalities of the crew members, nor the cause of the accident.

The Qiong Quong sent a distress call to a Chinese maritime search and rescue unit early Wednesday. Chinese authorities relayed that message to the Maritime Rescue and Coordination Center in Singapore which in turn contacted the Malaysian maritime rescue officials in the port city of Klang on peninsula Malaysia. It was about five hours after the original distress call to Chinese authorities when the Sarawak center heard of the accident, Bajan said.

A vessel from the Kuching maritime rescue center which was already patrolling in the area started searching for the missing crew Wednesday and a naval ship later joined the hunt, Bajan said.

The Malaysian air force was assisting in search and rescue operations, The New Straits Times reported.

The search continued Friday, Bajan said.