Malaysian rescuers continued to search for seven people aboard a helicopter feared to have crashed in the jungles of Borneo, after a report they had been found proved false, police said.

"The helicopter and its passengers have not been found yet, our officers have been continuing the search and rescue operations," a district police official told AFP.

The helicopter was carrying a Sarawak assistant minister Judson Sakai Tagal, five other officials and the pilot when it lost contact with air traffic control shortly after noon on Monday in the remote Sarawak highlands.

The official Bernama news agency had reported yesterday that the survivors were found alive at a longhouse at Pak Rumpai near the Malaysian-Indonesian border after villagers reported seeing the chopper go down in rainy weather in a valley.

However Bernama later quoted Aidan Wing, director of Hornbill Skyways which owns the helicopter, as saying that the information he provided Bernama was inaccurate and was based on hearsay.

Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation chief executive officer Roger Wong Hwa Puang was also on the helicopter, as part of a trip to conduct aerial mapping for a telecommunication project.