Fatal outing
Five schoolboys drown in Sungai Selangor after being swept away by strong currents.
HULU SELANGOR: What was supposed to be a fun start to the school holidays went awry when a river outing for eight primary school boys here turned tragic.
Five of them drowned while fishing at the river, two still missing while one survived.
The five confirmed dead are brothers Shahrizwan Abdullah, 10, and Shahrizat, 12, Mohd Ikhwan Mohd Ridhwan, 10, Mohd Aiman Fitri Md Asmadi, 12, and Amirul Hakimi Khairul Amru, nine.
At press time, two who were still missing and feared drowned were Muhammad Aiman Kamarul, 12, and Mohd Iskandar Shah Abdullah, 11, while Muhammad Shahir Azman, 12, survived.
The boys were students of SK Taman Bunga Raya 1, near here.
Farmhand Asabudin Rfesoudin, who heard a voice coming from underneath a bridge in Kampung Timah SKC, Bukit Beruntung here, at first dismissed it as the bleating of a neighbour’s goat.
Asabudin, who was on his way home from a vegetable farm nearby, only stopped when he heard the voice for the second time, recognising it as a cry for help.
“I parked my bike and went to have a look. I saw a boy holding on to a pipe by the drain,” said the 26-year-old Bangladeshi.
Asabudin said he called a villager for help and together with Johari Abdul Karim, 30, the men lowered a rope into the 5m monsoon drain, which is connected to the river, and brought Muhammad Shahir to safety.
“He was a strong boy. He was quiet and he did not cry. He responded to our instructions calmly,” he related.
Johari said Muhammad Shahir had clung on to the pipe while his friends were swept away by strong currents.
The bodies of brothers Shahrizwan and Shahrizat were spotted floating some 100m from where the group was last seen and brought out of the river at about 6.50pm.
Mohd Ikhwan and Mohd Aiman Fitri were found several hours later almost 4km downstream while Amirul Hakimi’s body was found at midnight.
Hulu Selangor OCPD Supt R. Supramaniam said the boys, aged between nine and 12, were at the Selangor River that flows through the village when they were dragged away by strong currents at 5.23pm yesterday.
“They were fishing when it started raining heavily and the river level began to rise.
“This is the third incident in the past few years,” he told reporters at the scene.
Kamarul Ariffin, 45, the father of Muhammad Aiman, said all he wanted to do was to congratulate his son for scoring several goals in a recent football game.
“I have not seen or spoken to him for two days as I was working and he was already asleep when I came home.
“This is not something that I want to come back to.
“I hope that he can be found safely,” said Kamarul between sobs.
Rohani Salis, 42, the mother of Mohd Iskandar Shah, has always advised him not to go fishing but it had always been his hobby.
A search and rescue team comprising 11 firefighters and 12 policemen were sent to the scene after a distress call was received at about 5.44pm.
The bodies of the dead were sent to the Kuala Kubu Baru Hospital for a post-mortem.
Hulu Selangor MP Datuk P. Kamalanathan was also at the scene to console the victims’ families.
The Deputy Education Minister said he was really sad as the victims were all schoolboys and that he knew their families.
“My condolences to the families of the victims. I will try to help as much as I can.
“I also want to urge parents to be more responsible and to always know the whereabouts and the activities of their children,” said Kamalanathan.