TAPAH – A 5-year-old boy drowned when he lost his balance and was swept away by the current while playing in Sungai Jerong Bikam, Sungkai, 24.6km from here, today.
Tapah district police chief Spt Wan Azharuddin Wan Ismail said the victim, Muhamad Amsyar Mohd Zamri, with two siblings and a cousin, were playing in the river in heavy rain when the incident took place at 10.45am.
“The boys, aged between 5 and 11 years old, started playing in the river without the family’s knowledge at 10.30am.
“When the victim lost his balance and was swept away, the other three ran to tell their mothers at a house about 200m from the scene,” he said in a statement here, today.
Wan Azharuddin said a search operation was promptly carried out by members of the Tapah Fire and Rescue Station, Malaysian Civil Defence Force, police and village folks.
He said the victim was found at about 11.30am about 15m from where he had fallen before he was pronounced dead and the body was sent to the Tapah Hospital for a post-mortem.
According to Wan Azharuddin, the victim and his family from Felda Besout 2, here, had arrived at a relative’s house in Kampung Bikam yesterday.
The initial investigation found that there was no criminal element involved in the case which was classified as sudden death, he added. – Bernama, January 3, 2020
