2 drown in Pahang waterfall outing
KUANTAN: When Azfar Mohammad spotted his friend, Muhammad Shah Faris Shahrin, drowning at the Berkelah Recreational Forest Waterfall near here on Monday, he jumped into the water to save his friend’s life.
But, he ended up losing his own.
The bodies of the two friends, both 22, from Pandamaran, Selangor, were found by the searchand-rescue (SAR) team at 8am yesterday, 16 hours after they were reported missing.
The duo, along with 10 other friends, arrived at the seven-tier waterfall at 3pm on Monday.
Their friend, Muhammad Saiful Ikhmal Hamdan, 22, said Shah Faris was swimming near the waterfall area when he started shouting for help.
“We tried to rescue him, but failed. Azfar then jumped into the water to save him. But, both of them drowned.
“The area had poor phone signal, so I had to walk to the car park to call for help. This is our first trip here,” he told the New Straits Times at the scene yesterday.
Saiful said they found out about the popular recreational spot on the Internet.
“We left Pandamaran at 7am in two cars and reached here at 10am. We hiked for three hours before reaching the waterfall.”
Mohd Zulfazlin Mohd Aliyas, 21, said one of them almost drowned while attempting to locate and rescue Azfar and Shah Faris, but was pulled out of the water by the others.
“All of us were in the water during the incident and everyone panicked. We tried to rescue our friends without thinking about the consequences,” he said, adding that both the victims’ families had been informed about the drowning.
State Fire and Rescue Department deputy director Mohd Sani Harul said the water where the victims’ bodies were recovered was 12m deep.
He said SAR operations began after the department was alerted at 3.10pm on Monday.
Sani said the victims’ bodies were flown out by helicopter and were taken to Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital here.