Boy badly burnt in playground incident
ALOR STAR: A 7-year-old boy was seriously burnt when he torched himself while playing with petrol he found at a playground near his home in Taman Jelutong, Kuala Nerang, on Tuesday.
Muhammad Naufal Zafran Mohd Zahiruddin, suffered 30 per cent burns to his head, body and arms, and is warded at Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital’s burns intensive care unit here.
In the 2.30pm incident, the victim and his friend, also aged 7, were at the playground when they stumbled upon a bottle containing petrol in a drain, some 500m away from his home.
It is learnt that the boys, both pupils of SK Kuala Nerang, were playing with a lighter and the petrol when it suddenly caught fire.
His father, Mohd Zahiruddin Zakaria, 42, said he was returning home from a grocery shop when he saw Naufal struggling to remove his trousers that were on fire.
“I was shocked to see the burns on his head, body and arms. I could smell petrol on his body.
“I rushed my son to Kuala Nerang Hospital and he was subsequently transferred to Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital’s burns intensive care unit,” he said.
Zahiruddin, a driver with Kuala Nerang Hospital, said the third child of five was scheduled to undergo surgery.
He lodged a report on the incident yesterday.
The other child with Naufal was uninjured.