A villager searching for wood in the area found the human bones and clothing items on Tuesday, district police chief Supt Mohd Izaan Abdullah told FMT.

Izaan said a family member of the missing 68-year-old man confirmed the trousers found in the area as Yanting’s.

The skeleton was found about 2km from the mangrove area where the elderly man, who had been out looking for mangrove shoots, was reported missing on June 6.

A team comprising personnel from the district police headquarters and fire and rescue department as well as Rela members and villagers went to the area to investigate.

“The skeleton was found quite far up from the river bank, thus we believe Yanting was not attacked by crocodiles,” said Izaan.

Rescue parties had reported sighting crocodiles in the mangrove swamp during their efforts to search for Yanting.

“We’ve photographed all the bones and clothing items found and sent them to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu for examination that will hopefully give us conclusive results,” said Izaan.

“A DNA test will be carried out to identify whether the bones found belonged to Yanting,” Izaan said, adding police believe no foul play was involved in the case.